This project will identify priorities for tackling the current epidemic in Australians aged 65 and over due to side effects of their medications. 

Two different groups of medications will be studied. 

The first will be the prescribed drugs most often recorded as causes of hospital stay, including those taken to stop blood clotting, for high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems, for rheumatism or strong pain relief, anti-cancer drugs and steroids. 

The study will examine which of these drugs taken under what circumstances has the highest risk, so prevention can be better targeted. The study will investigate if adequate laboratory monitoring of the anti-clotting drugs is taking place and whether the guidelines should be updated. 

The second group will be 68 medications that should be avoided in seniors according to an international expert panel. The research will see how often these inappropriate medications are still prescribed in the Australian setting, and the size of their contributions to unplanned hospital stays. 

The researchers suspect that this problem is much larger than immediately apparent from routine statistics, because many of the side effects of inappropriate medications are non-specific, such as confusion, drowsiness or difficulty standing up, thus putting seniors at risk of falls and neglect of other aspects of their health.

In addition, a qualitative component of the project will investigate the issues for seniors in attaining medications safety and compliance.

Two panels comprised of an expert panel of health professionals and a Seniors Consumer Panel will work with the researchers to guide this component of the project.  The School’s Community and Consumer Advisory Council is strongly involved in this project.