Too many seniors are being overprescribed meds: research
Posted June 23, 2016 6:51 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A new study says inappropriate drugs are being prescribed to seniors and it’s time for a national strategy.
The problem is said to be costing the Canadian health care system about $2 billion a year from hospitalizations by older people who are often taking too many pills for various conditions.
“People just say, ‘Well, they’re old, they must be demented and we’ll just medicate them. It’s an ageist bias that underscores this,” says Professor Gloria Gutman at SFU’s Gerontology Research Centre.
She also points to doctors as being one source of the problem, pointing out many are quick to write a prescription rather than trying to diagnose the problem.
New research out of UBC finds 37 per cent of older Canadians filled one or more prescriptions in 2013. Women were more likely than men to fill such prescriptions and sedatives were the leading contributors to both the frequency and cost of potentially inappropriate prescriptions among seniors.
“We’re wasting vast sums of money on drugs that we know pose more risks than benefits for patients over 65 years of age,” says School of Population and Public Health Professor Steve Morgan. “Canada urgently needs a national strategy to ensure that older patients receive only those medications that are appropriate for their health and for their age.”
Health Canada says it’s aiming to slash prescribing to seniors in half sometime within the next two years.
The study is published online in an open-access journal of the Canadian Medical Association.
