Elderly over reacting
13 January 2009
A West Australian study has shown that people aged 60 years and over are experiencing long-term or recurring health problems as a result of the medications they take. This is particularly concerning as medication use in this age group is increasing on a yearly basis � rising by five percent in 2001 alone.
According to a recent story in the Sydney Morning Herald (12/01/2009), the two decade study of medical records discovered that between the early 1980s and the late 1990s, the likelihood of hospital admissions for the same drug reaction more than doubled. This had a drastic effect on the number of hospital readmissions, which accounted for 30 per cent of all hospitalisations in 2003.
Lead researcher, Min Zhang, from the University of Western Australia, stated that drug reactions accounted for up to 10 percent of in-patient costs, with the growing use of medications cited as the main reason for this increase.
"Older patients are vulnerable to [reactions] because of the multiple drugs they receive to manage chronic diseases," and because they metabolised them differently, Dr Zhang wrote in the British Medical Journal.
Medication management is shown to be a growing concern among healthcare professionals, with medication orders frequently handled as an afterthought and inadequately documented, increasing the risk of drug reactions and injuries to patients.