Medication nation: new research shows nearly half of all older people now taking at least five medicines
Ian Maidment, Aston University More and more people are relying on their daily dose of medication for long-term health conditions. Recent figures show that prescriptions for antidepressant medications are on the rise with treatments for diabetes among the most commonly prescribed. However, the greatest number of prescriptions dispensed in 2016 in England were to treat hypertention and heart failure. Maybe this last one isn’t totally surprising given that more people are living longer – into their sixties and well beyond. People over this age are more likely to be taking a number of medicines, and our recent research has found a large increase in the number of older people taking multiple medications. These numbers have increased by over 400% in the past 20 years – with nearly half of all older people now taking at least five medicines. Compare this with the 12% of people over 65 on this number of medications between 1991 and 1994, and you can see this increase has b...