Rising prescription and supplement use poses health risks for seniors

Older Americans are increasingly taking multiple prescription medications and dietary supplements. Although the prevalence of potentially major drug-drug interactions has declined slightly, more than 1 in 5 older adults are potentially at risk, according to a USC-led study published September 24 in JAMA.

The research was led by Dima Mazen Qato of the USC Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, in collaboration with researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and NORC at the University of Chicago.

They found that polypharmacy, defined as taking five or more prescription medications at the same time, increased from 31% to 35.7%. Dietary supplement polypharmacy also increased, from 12.6% to 16.7%.

Antidepressants, statins and antiplatelet therapies were the most commonly used medications involved in potentially major interactions among older adults.

The study's co-authors are Shyam Krishnan Ondanat Veetil and Qingrong "Jessica" Li of USC Mann; Jocelyn Wilder of NORC at the University of Chicago; and Rupshikha Sen and G. Caleb Alexander of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The study used data from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project, which is supported by the National Institute on Aging (R01AG043538).

Source:

University of Southern California

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