Choice targets elderly’s medicine habits
Consumer group, Choice, called for widespread reforms to help patients, doctors and pharmacists reduce the risk, especially to the elderly, of mixing their medicines, with the average number of daily drug doses per person doubling in 20 years.
It’s now estimated that 40% of Australians aged 65 or over are taking five or more medications, increasing the risks of side effects and interactions of medicines including over-the-counter treatments such as aspirin and St John’s Wort.
Research also shows many of the elderly are taking unnecessary medicines and are even ‘doubling up’ on some through having different doctors. There are also issues with under-medication due to confusion, neglect and cost.
Adverse drug events account for more than 140,000 hospital admissions a year, at a cost of $380 million, and it’s estimated that about half of these are avoidable.
The most commonly implicated drugs are cardiovascular medicines, anticoagulants, anti-inflammatories and chemotherapy medicines.
Choice said in the United States, there are ‘brown-bag days’ where the elderly can take all their medicines, including over-the-counter medicines and herbal medicines, to doctors to check for necessity, inter-drug interactions and expired use-by dates, which could also be effective in Australia.
