"It's an ongoing concern," said Todd Semla, president of the American Geriatrics Society. "There are estimates that 50 percent of older people are noncompliant with one or more of their medications."
Medical experts say there are noncompliance problems in all age groups. But seniors seem to suffer from the problem more than others.
"What we have found is that older adults are at a greater risk for having problems," said Dr. Daniel Budnitz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "They are about twice as likely to end up in emergency rooms with drug safety problems than younger folks. And once they're [in the hospital], they're more likely to have to stay there."
Some problems have to do with the fact that older bodies don't process medications the same way as young ones, experts say.
"As we get older, there are changes in how drugs are metabolized and how drugs are distributed in the body and how we react to those medications," said Ilene Zuckerman, a professor in the pharmaceutical health services research department at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. "And older people use more medication; older people have more diseases. So we know that older people do have more adverse drug events."
People over age 65 represent about 13 percent of the population, experts said, but they consume about one-third of all the medication prescribed in the United States. As the elderly population grows - 25 percent will be 65 or older by the year 2040, experts say - so does their medication consumption: In about 30 years, seniors will be taking half of the nation's prescribed medication.
At the same time, according to a 2006 analysis by Medco Health Solutions Inc., a New Jersey-based pharmacy benefits manager company, patients over age 65 have a drug error rate about seven times greater than that of patients younger than 65.
The analysis also reported that one in four seniors received prescriptions from five or more doctors, while one in 20 received prescriptions from eight or more.
"Many of these drugs do have to be given more than once a day," said Christopher Kearney, director of the geriatric care unit at Union Memorial Hospital. "Or they're drugs that can't be given together or that can't be given on an empty stomach or can't be given on a full stomach. It's pretty complex."
Older patients who mismanage their medications many times end up in the hospital because they feel sick or dehydrated, or they become dizzy and fall.
