(ANSA) – ROME, 09 OCT – If the presence of two or more diseases already characterizes 75% of those over sixty-five, this condition affects almost all those over eighty. The direct consequence is the use of a large number of drugs, so much so that one elderly person in three takes 10 or more a day, but not always all of them are necessary and often in interaction with each other. The Italian Medicines Agency is turning the spotlight on “this public health problem”, on the occasion of the presentation in Rome of the ‘COSÌsiFA’ project, which aims to make citizens and healthcare workers always informed about medicines.
From the data of the AIFA Report on the use of medicines in the elderly, it appears that during 2019 almost all of the over-sixty-five population received at least one pharmaceutical prescription (98%), with slight differences between geographical areas, with daily consumption equal to three doses for each citizen. In this scenario, polypharmacy, defined as the simultaneous use of multiple medicines, “is a public health problem, because as is known it is associated with a reduction in therapeutic adherence, as well as an increase in the risk of drug interactions”, Aifa specifies.
This is a problem, explains the president of Aifa, Robert Nisticò, “which must be addressed by also providing artificial intelligence tools that allow the doctor to orient himself among the numerous risks of interaction between the various medicines.
Perhaps to ultimately decide to declassify some of them”. To address this, the specific working group will produce information material, paying particular attention to interactions between drugs, prescriptive inappropriateness, therapeutic adherence, application of guidelines and active involvement of the patient and family in decisions. It will be also made available InterCheck-web, a prescription support tool developed by the Mario Negri Pharmacological Research Institute with the aim of providing doctors and pharmacists with information to balance the risks and benefits of polypharmacy (ANSA).