NATION : U.S. Warns of Widespread Misuse of Prescription Drugs Among Elderly

Prescription drugs create widespread and frequently fatal problems among the nation’s elderly because of patient misuse and inadequacies in the government and the medical profession, a federal report said today.

Americans older than 60 account for 39% of all hospitalizations and 51% of all deaths from adverse drug reactions though they compose only 17% of the U.S. population, according to the study by the Health and Human Services Department.

“A growing body of evidence accumulated over the past 10 years indicates that mis-medication of the elderly has become a critical health care issue, labeled by some as the nation’s ‘other drug problem,’ ” asserted Richard P. Kusserow, the department’s inspector general.