Elderly 'at added risk' if overmedicated, study says
The Washington Post
June 16, 2015 10:18 MYT
June 16, 2015 10:18 MYT
The survey indicated that 36 percent of them took six or more types of medication, and 9 percent took 10 kinds or more.
A survey found 40 percent of elderly people who live at home and are on more than six kinds of medication, which might lead to deteriorating health.
About 30 percent of them were also found to be taking drugs that might cause harmful side effects, according to the survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.
As elderly people often develop several chronic diseases, they tend to take various types of drugs. However, experts warn that too many drugs could lead to side effects because the body's ability to absorb declines as people get older. Taking six or more kinds of drugs is said to increase the risk of deteriorating health, such as a tendency to fall down easily due to the interactions of the different drugs.
The survey results were presented at a conference of the Japan Geriatrics started Friday and closed Sunday.
In the survey, nurses and others visited about 1,300 people 65 or older who were living at home in Tokyo in November and December 2013. Among them, 885 cases in which the details of medication had been confirmed were analyzed.
The survey indicated that 36 percent of them took six or more types of medication, and 9 percent took 10 kinds or more. One of them took as many as 17 varieties of .
Using a simple test to check memory and other abilities, 11 percent of those surveyed were diagnosed with . Among those who took six or more types of medication, the figure rose to as high as 18 percent.
Twenty-eight percent took one or more kinds of medicine that are not recommended for the elderly under U.S. . Many of them took sleeping pills said to lower mobility functions that could make it easier for them to fall.
Elderly people "tend to take more and more medication because they visit several different medical institutions," said Hirotoshi Niikawa, a researcher of the institute who compiled the survey. "Drugs are necessary in some cases, but an increase of unnecessary medication could cause poor health. I want both doctors and patients to be careful."