title: Potential health impacts of multiple drug prescribing for older people: a case-control study.
abstract: Using a prescription-survey linkage dataset for 4506 people aged ≥50 years from six general practices, the null hypothesis that multiple drug prescribing was not associated with changes in health over a 3-year time-period was investigated. There was a significant trend in the adjusted association between higher levels of multidrug therapy and deterioration in both physical and psychological health over a 3-year time period. The study highlights the potential need for assessing drug prescribing in terms of overall health.
authors.affiliation: Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre, Keele University, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, UK. u.kadam@cphc.keele.ac.uk
authors.forename: Umesh T
authors.initials: UT
authors.lastname: Kadam
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017723:Drug Utilization Review; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D019338:Polypharmacy; D011788:Quality of Life