Older Adults Often Don't Report Adverse Drug Effects

A study published in the Annals of Family Medicine found fewer than 40 percent of 859 community-dwelling older adults reported adverse drug events (ADEs) to family physicians, while the doctors of those who did provide such information often omitted it from the health record, reports the American Academy of Family Physicians . Older adults who did not report ADEs said they thought the symptoms were caused by old age and did not want to bother their doctor. The ADE instrument used by the researchers had an accuracy of 75 percent in distinguishing ADEs from non-ADEs, along with a sensitivity of 29 percent and a specificity of 93 percent. "We were surprised that only 39 percent of subjects reported adverse drug events to their family physician," said the Royal College of Surgeons' Caitriona Cahir. Meanwhile, family physicians only documented ADEs from the previous six months in the medical records for 10 percent of the subjects studied. Cahir added that in view of the complexity of identifying ADEs in older people who have various comorbidities and are taking several medications, they may have difficulty differentiating between symptoms caused by their individual medications or their underlying medical conditions.