SEVEN OUT of 10 older people in nursing homes in Ireland are being given inappropriate medication, according to a report launched yesterday.
Benzodiazepines, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories and medicines used to treat urinary incontinence and indigestion were found to be the drugs most commonly inappropriately prescribed.
The report was funded by the Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (Cardi) and carried out by a cross-Border research team led by Dr Stephen Byrne, senior lecturer in clinical pharmacy at University College Cork.
A total of 315 residents over 65 years of age were randomly selected from 14 nursing homes in Co Cork and were age- and gender-matched with 315 residents of nursing homes in Northern Ireland. Their medical notes were reviewed in detail between December 2009 and September 2010.
It was discovered that 73 per cent of those surveyed in the Republic were receiving at least one potentially inappropriate medicine while 67 per cent of those in nursing homes in the North were affected by the issue.
Nearly one-fifth of those reviewed were receiving three or more inappropriate medicines. The cost of this was estimated at €356 per person.