ED Patients Lack Drug Information

A study has found that only 15% of elderly (over 65) emergency department (ED) patients could correctly list all of their drugs, dosages, frequencies, and indications. The study was published in the June 2002 Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Researchers interviewed 77 patients and determined they were taking an average of just less than six prescription medications. They found that the more drugs the patients were taking, the more likely they would have trouble in identifying them, their dosages, frequencies, and indications. The researchers also found that each patient omitted on average a little more than one drug. While patients listed 359 drugs, they only correctly identified 236 drugs (65.5%), and only 32.5% of patients correctly identified their dosages. The study excluded elderly patients who did not know their pharmacy or were disoriented or medically unstable. Otherwise, the problem would probably have been more pervasive.

"Considering that a large number of elderly people go to emergency departments with adverse drug reactions and that they are the fastest-growing age group, this could become a major public health problem,” noted Joel M. Bartfield, M.D., of Albany Medical College (New York, USA)and co-author of the study.




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Albany Medical College