Multiple pathologies and drug consumption in a group of centenarians from Eastern Sicily.

Multiple pathologies are characteristic for the elderly. We evaluated the prevalence of multiple pathologies in 28 randomly selected centenarians living in Eastern Sicily and compared the data with those obtained in another random group of 28 control subjects over 80 years of age. It has been revealed that 25% of the centenarians suffered from 0-3 pathologies, while the remaining 75% displayed more than 3 pathologies. The control subjects had 0-3 pathologies in 50% of over 80 years, while 50% were affected by more than 3 pathologies. In centenarians the most prevalent pathologies involved the sensorial apparatus (sight and hearing), followed by the digestive, urogenital and cardiovascular systems. In the control group the rank of occurrence was as follows: cardiovascular system, osteoarticular and respiratory apparatuses, and sensorium. We compared drug consumption in the two age groups. In the centenarians, 71.43% took 0-3 drugs, while 28.57% took more than 3 drugs. In the control group, 53.57% took 0-3 drugs, whereas 46.43% took more than 3 drugs.