Appropriate medication use is paramount for all patients but can be particularly important among the elderly, who tend to be more sensitive to side effects and more often have chronic conditions that require multiple drugs, increasing the likelihood of an adverse interaction. A new study suggests most elderly adults do not take their medications appropriately.
Researchers from Belgium-based Ghent University studied a population of community-dwelling elderly adults and found while 58 percent were taking five or more medications daily, only 17 percent were not misusing or underusing their prescriptions. The study also identified a link between elderly adults who didn't take their medications and increased risk of death or hospitalization.
"Taking too many medications or unsafe medications are known to cause adverse health outcomes; however, we have shown that not taking essential, beneficial medications is more frequent and can be more strongly associated with negative outcomes," Maarten Wauters, study author, said in a statement. "Prescribing medications to older persons should be done after careful thought, balancing the benefits and risk of every medication at regular intervals."
In the 18-month study period, underuse of medications was associated with a 39 percent increase in mortality and a 26 percent increase in hospitalization. The authors conclude that seeking prescriptions is the most common reason patients interact with providers, and working more closely with clinical pharmacologists and utilizing electronic systems for drug monitoring and prescribing could help reduce misuse and underuse.