NATION : U.S. Warns of Widespread Misuse of Prescription Drugs Among Elderly
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WASHINGTON — Prescription drugs create widespread and frequently fatal problems among the nation’s elderly because of patient misuse and inadequacies in the government and the medical profession, a federal report said today.
Americans older than 60 account for 39% of all hospitalizations and 51% of all deaths from adverse drug reactions though they compose only 17% of the U.S. population, according to the study by the Health and Human Services Department.
“A growing body of evidence accumulated over the past 10 years indicates that mis-medication of the elderly has become a critical health care issue, labeled by some as the nation’s ‘other drug problem,’ ” asserted Richard P. Kusserow, the department’s inspector general.
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