The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #72649

Audrey Zarba, PhD and Fernando Wagner, ScD. Drug Abuse Research Program/Program in Public Health, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Jenkins 350, Baltimore, MD 21251, 443-885-4043, azarba@moac.morgan.edu

There is growing evidence that misuse of prescribed drugs may be one of the most common problems of drug use among the elderly. In addition, there may be an association of co-morbidity and prescription drug use among this population. Although the elderly comprise about 13% of the US population, they account for 30% of all prescription medications used (Brummel-Smith, 1995). Little research describes drug use among the elderly by race/ethnicity; and this fact may have important implications for healthcare policy and delivery of healthcare services. The goal of this paper is to describe patterns of drug use and abuse among American elderly by gender and by race/ethnicity. The data are from the 2000 and 2001 National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse. Participants reported their most recent non-medical use of prescription drugs, their age at first use as well as their current use of prescription drugs for medical use. Based on the responses to these questions, the prevalence of lifetime use, the past year’s use and the annual numbers of new users will be estimated using appropriate statistical procedures account for the complex sample design of the surveys (i.e., clustering by sampling units and unequal selection probabilities).

Learning Objectives:

• At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to describe race/ethnicity patterns of prescription drug use and abuse among the elderly; list the drug classes,which are most often abused by the elderly, by gender among different race/ethnic groups.

Keywords: Elderly, Prescription Drug Use Patterns

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.