How many medications does your grandmother take after breakfast and before going to bed? An average elderly person are taking at least seven different medications. And although most of it are a combination of prescriptive medications and vitamins, they are still at risk for a possible health concern due to the interactions between the drugs, not to mention their side effects.
Older people depend a lot on health care system to provide them with the assistance they need for a more comfortable life. However, the healthcare system that provides them with these medications seem to be causing them more harm that good. According to the report released by Age UK, they revealed that at least one for every five prescriptions given to the elederly are inappropriate.
The elderly who live in care homes at an average take in at least 8 pills at a time, with one that is at risk of a mistake when it was given to them. More medications is not necessarily better. The report reveals that doctors tend to add a pill or two every time the elderly person suffers another health condition. Sadly, new pills are added without stopping the prescription for the old ones.
Medicines are aimed at helping the elderly feel better about their condition, but it also puts them at risk of taking a fall, which will then lead them to a hospital confinement. Statistics show that more than 1,000 old people are admitted to hospitals because of a fall. Their chances of suffering a fall again is higher by 14% because of the extra medication they are taking apart from the usual four pills.
There are also cases of adverse drug reactions that cause nearly 6% of all hospital admissions, the report says. One in every fifty cases usually end up in a fatal reaction. Nausea, dizziness, low mood, and loss of appetite are just some of the many side effects of medicines that are often given to the elderly. Older people tend to become more susceptible to side effects.
Polypharmacy, as they call it, is the condition when older people are on various medications. The report suggests that a review of these medications and how they impact the body be done to ensure that there is no overlapping of effect. The report only includes the struggle of the elderly to cope up with all the medications given to them.
"That's why it is important that a General Practitioner keeps track of all the medicines and conducts a review, from time to time, as to which is still best for their health. Considerations must be made in relation to how the medicine affects the body as well as how it interacts with the other prescription medications."
