NATION : U.S. Warns of Widespread Misuse of Prescription Drugs Among Elderly
- Share via
WASHINGTON — Prescription drugs create widespread and frequently fatal problems among the nation’s elderly because of patient misuse and inadequacies in the government and the medical profession, a federal report said today.
Americans older than 60 account for 39% of all hospitalizations and 51% of all deaths from adverse drug reactions though they compose only 17% of the U.S. population, according to the study by the Health and Human Services Department.
“A growing body of evidence accumulated over the past 10 years indicates that mis-medication of the elderly has become a critical health care issue, labeled by some as the nation’s ‘other drug problem,’ ” asserted Richard P. Kusserow, the department’s inspector general.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
The latest effort is coming from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. They just announced a $3 million program in conjunction with some nonprofits groups to test and clean the soil at homes still standing in the areas impacted by the Eaton Fire.
California once bet big on offshore wind to help power its clean-energy future, but the Trump administration is now paying developers billions to walk away from their projects. As California’s remaining offshore-wind leases hang in the balance, the state is fighting back in court.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
