Published 1 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1132
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1132

News

Over 60s’ use of prescription drugs has doubled in past decade in England

Andrew Cole

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

People in England over the age of 60 years are using twice as many prescription drugs now as they were 10 years ago, new figures released by the NHS Information Centre show.

The statistics on prescriptions dispensed in the community show that people aged 60 or over are now given an average of 42.4 prescribed items a year, up from 22.3 in 1997. The overall number of prescriptions dispensed rose by nearly 60% over this period.

Overall 796 million prescribed items were dispensed in England in 2007, whereas the number was 752 million in 2006 and 500 million in 1997. On average, 15.6 items are prescribed per person each year; 10 years ago the average was 10.3 items. However, the average number of items prescribed to children under 16 years fell in the same period, from 4.9 to 3.9 a year.

More drugs are dispensed for hypertension and heart failure . . . [Full text of this article]


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