Elderly women and inappropriate prescriptions

A new UBC study found that nearly one in three women over age 65 in B.C. have received inappropriate prescription drugs, reports China’s Xinhua news agency.

“The effect of a patient’s sex on the risk of inappropriate prescribing is of tremendous clinical and social concern,” said principal investigator and UBC public health professor Steve Morgan.

Women were up to 23 percent more likely than men to be prescribed inappropriate drugs, the researchers also found. They recommended arming women with more knowledge about their medication options.

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