Seasons change, fashions change, US presidents change, but for many patients, prescriptions never do—except to become more numerous.
Among US adults aged 40 to 79 years, about 22% reported using 5 or more prescription drugs in the previous 30 days, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Within that group, people aged 60 to 79 years were more than twice as likely to have used at least 5 prescription drugs in the previous month as those aged 40 to 59 years, according to the NCHS. On average, 750 older adults in the US are hospitalized each day because of adverse drug events, notes the Lown Institute, a think tank in Needham, Massachusetts.