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Canada spends over 300 million USD annually on medicine that harms seniors

Xinhua, June 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Canada spends more than 400 million dollars (312 million U.S. dollars) annually on drugs prescribed to seniors even though the medicine should be avoided for older patients, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia.

The study was published Wednesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The study's authors conclude that the full cost to Canada's health-care system is closer to 2 billion dollars (1.56 U.S. dollars) when hospital visits and other repercussions of inappropriate prescriptions are factored in.

"We're wasting vast sums of money on drugs that we know pose more risks than benefits for patients over 65 years of age," said Steve Morgan, a professor from the university's school of population and public health.

"Canada urgently needs a national strategy to ensure that older patients receive only those medications that are appropriate for their health and for their age," he said.

Using prescription claims data for 2013 in all provinces except Quebec, Morgan and colleagues looked for prescriptions filled by patients aged 65 and older for medications listed as potentially inappropriate by the American Geriatrics Society.

The researchers found that 37 percent of older Canadians filled one or more prescriptions on the list in 2013. Women were more likely than men to fill such prescriptions. Sedatives were the leading contributors to both the frequency and cost of potentially inappropriate prescriptions among older Canadians.

Researchers advise that patients, families and health-care providers have more conversations about what sorts of medications an individual is taking and whether those medications are appropriate.

The researchers call for the creation of a national strategy on the appropriate use of medicines. Other countries, such as Australia, have done so and found that investing in better prescribing behavior and medication use improves patient health while significantly reducing prescription drug costs and costs elsewhere in the health-care system. Endi