Seniors and Medication

I was asked to think about issues that are important for seniors so over the last few days I have come up with a few that perhaps I have not talked about before. The first one is the overprescribing of Medication to seniors.  In many jurisdictions, there is work being done on the issue of medication for seniors in Long Term Care and that is important. There are, however, many seniors who are taking too many medications and they are not in Long Term Care, although if they continue to be overprescribed, they may end up in Long Term Care. In 2018, the Canadian Institute for Health Information found that 2 out of 3 Canadians (66%) over the age of 65 take at least 5 different prescription medications. 1 out of 4 Canadians (27%) over the age of 65 take at least 10 different prescription medications. 

In a report by the BC Care Providers Evidence from numerous studies also shows that many medications prescribed to elderly patients are inappropriate in that they introduce a significant risk for adverse drug events when there is evidence that alternative medicine may be equally or more effective. In primary care, for example, one study notes approximately 1 in 5 prescriptions issued for older adults is inappropriate. (Source: Deprescribing in Clinical Practice: Reducing Polypharmacy in Older Patients Linda Brookes. November 26, 2013. Accessed at: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/814861_2.)

This is important because if seniors are taking too many and inappropriate medications then they will become a burden on the health care system, so an examination of what steps are being taken to wean seniors off drugs would seem in order.