Polypharmacy in older Australians

A study just published in Medical Journal of Australia has revealed that about 24% of patients aged 70 years or over had 10 or more routinely prescribed medicines on hospital admission.  The authors of Polypharmacy among inpatients aged 70 years or older in Australia examined records from 2005 to 2010 and compared the number of medicines recorded at hospital admission to the number recorded at hospital discharge.  They found there was no change in either the number or type of medicines prescribed to the patient. The authors concluded that treating clinicians could be doing more to rationalise the number of drugs prescribed during that patient's hospital stay.

Polypharmacy among inpatients aged 70 years or older in Australia.
Ruth E Hubbard, Nancye M Peel, Ian A Scott, Jennifer H Martin, Alesha Smith, Peter I Pillans, Arjun Poudel and Leonard C Gray

Med J Aust 2015; 202 (7): 373-377. doi:10.5694/mja13.00172