Elderly at risk from not taking all their medicines

MANY elderly people may be putting themselves at risk by taking prescription medicines inappropriately, new research suggests.

Scientists in Belgium who studied 503 adults aged 80 and older for 18 months found that more than half were taking five or more medications for chronic conditions daily.

Only 17 per cent of the population were not affected by any kind of drug under-use or misuse.

A total of 67 per cent of participants were taking too little of the medicines they were prescribed, said the researchers.

Under-use was associated with a 39 per cent increased risk of death and a 26 per cent increased likelihood of hospitalisation. Associations with “misuse”, which included taking too much medicine, were unclear.

Chief investigator Dr Maarten Wauters, from Ghent University, Belgium, said: “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.

“Prescribing medications to older persons should be done after careful thought, balancing the benefits and risk of every medications at regular intervals.”

The findings are published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, from the British Pharmacology Society, said: “Prescriptions are the most common interaction many of us have with healthcare professionals, yet this research shows the under-use of prescription medicines can be harmful.”