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Prescribing at 95 years of age: cross-sectional findings from the Newcastle 85+ study
Laurie E Davies1, Andrew Kingston2, Adam Todd3
1Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. laurie.davies@newcastle.ac.uk.
Background:
Previous research has examined prescribing amongst 85-year-olds in English primary care, but less is known about prescribing amongst 95-year-olds in spite of population ageing.
Aim:
We describe the most commonly prescribed medicines in a cohort of 95-year-olds, using 10-year follow-up data from the Newcastle 85+ Study (n = 90).
Method:
A total of 1040 participants were recruited to the Newcastle 85+ Study through general practices at 85-years of age, and 90 surviving participants were re-contacted and assessed at 95-years of age. Prescribed medications from general practice medical records were examined through cross-tabulations and classified as preventative or for symptom control based on their customary usage.
Results:
Preventative medications with unclear evidence of benefit such as statins (36.7%), aspirin (21.1%) and bisphosphonates (18.9%) were frequently prescribed.
Conclusions:
Future research in a larger clinical dataset could investigate this preliminary trend, which suggests that benefit/risk information for preventive medication, and evidence for deprescribing, is needed in the very old.
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