Drug-use patterns among black and nonblack community-dwelling elderly.
OBJECTIVE
To describe and compare drug-use patterns among black and nonblack community-dwelling elderly.


METHODS
Survey.


METHODS
Five-county urban and rural region in Piedmont, NC.


METHODS
Stratified probability household sample of 4164 community residents aged 65 or older from the Piedmont Health Survey of the Elderly (65 percent women, 54 percent black, mean age 73.56 +/- 6.74 y).


METHODS
Prevalence of medication use and mean drug use; therapeutic medication category use.


RESULTS
Data were weighted to represent the population in this geographic area. Fewer blacks reported the use of over-the-counter (OTC) medications and total medications than did nonblacks (66 vs. 76 percent and 88 vs. 92 percent, respectively; p less than 0.001). Compared with nonblacks, blacks reported using a lower mean number of prescription (2.02 vs. 2.35; p less than 0.001), OTC (1.12 vs. 1.42; p less than 0.001), and total (3.14 vs. 3.77; p less than 0.001) drugs. The therapeutic medication categories varied by race for prescription cardiovascular, analgesic, and central nervous system (CNS) drugs and OTC nutritional supplements. More nonblacks than blacks reported the use of analgesics (62.5 vs. 55.6 percent, respectively; p less than 0.001), CNS drugs (26.1 vs. 14.2 percent, respectively; p less than 0.001), nutritional supplements (27.5 vs. 16.9 percent, respectively; p less than 0.001), and gastrointestinal agents (29.0 vs. 23.5 percent, respectively; p less than 0.001). Blacks were more likely to report problems in managing their medications than were nonblacks (9.0 vs. 6.1 percent, respectively; p = 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggest that there are distinct racial differences in medication-use patterns among the elderly.
Hanlon
J T
JT
Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710.
Fillenbaum
G G
GG
Burchett
B
B
Wall
W E
WE
Service
C
C
Blazer
D G
DG
George
L K
LK
D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003625:Data Collection; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009657:North Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D012646:Self Administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012651:Self Medication / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D004366:Nonprescription Drugs