Abstract
Background
In older adults co-occurrence of multiple diseases often leads to use of multiple
medications (polypharmacy). The aim of the present study is to describe how prescription
of medications varies across age groups, with specific focus on the oldest old.
Methods
We performed a cross-sectional study using 2013 data from the OsMed Health-DB database
(mean number of medicines and defined daily doses prescribed in 15,931,642 individuals).
There were 3,378,725 individuals age 65 years or older (21.2% of the study sample).
Results
The mean number of prescribed medications progressively rose from 1.9 in the age group
<65 years to 7.4 in the age group 80–84 years and then declined, with a more marked
reduction in the age group 95 years or older with a mean number of 2.8 medications.
A similar pattern was observed for the mean number of defined daily doses. Among participants
age ≥65 years, proton pump inhibitors were the most commonly prescribed medication
(40.9% of individuals ≥65 years), followed by platelet aggregation inhibitors (32.8%)
and hydroxy-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (26.1%). A decline in prescription
was observed among individuals age 90 years or older, but this reduction was less
consistent for medications used to treat acute conditions (ie, antibiotics and glucocorticoids)
rather than preventive medicines commonly used to treat chronic diseases (ie, antihypertensive
medications and hydroxy-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors).
Conclusions
The burden of medication treatment progressively increases till age 85 and substantially
declines after age of 90 years. Patterns of medication prescription widely vary across
age groups.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 01, 2015
Footnotes
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
This work arises from the Joint Action on Chronic Diseases and Promoting Healthy Ageing across the Life Cycle (JA-CHRODIS), which has received funding from the European Union, in the framework of the Health Program (2008–2013). Sole responsibility lies with the author and the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
