Sunday, April 21, 2013

21% of seniors on risky meds; more in U.S. South | Brown University News and Events

21% of seniors on risky meds; more in U.S. South | Brown University News and Events: "PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — More than one in five seniors with Medicare Advantage plans received a prescription for a potentially harmful “high-risk medication” in 2009, according to an analysis by Brown University public health researchers. The questionable prescriptions were significantly more common in the Southeast United States, as well as among women and people living in relatively poor areas.

The demographic trends in the analysis, based on Medicare data from more than 6 million patients, suggest that differences in the rates of prescription of about 110 medications deemed risky for the elderly cannot be explained merely by the individual circumstances of patients, said lead author Danya Qato, a pharmacist and doctoral candidate in health services research at Brown."