Collection 

Polypharmacy in the Over 60s

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Polypharmacy, the use of multiple prescription medicines, is an increasing public health concern given that it is associated with complications in older people including increased risk of falls, side effects, and drug-drug interactions that reduce medication benefit. With an ageing population, increasingly diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions, management of appropriate treatment can be complex. Avoidance of unnecessary prescriptions is important in order to ensure that older people do not suffer unnecessarily from illness due to excessive, inappropriate, or inadequate medicine consumption.

To reduce the risk of inappropriate prescribing, healthcare providers require improved decision making tools and more information on medication optimization. Patients also benefit from education that increases their confidence in continuing or discontinuing medication and their quality of life can also be improved through assessment of treatment adherence failure and simplification of medication management.

This Collection will bring together primary research that considers incidence of polypharmacy and its impact on patients over 60 or evaluates interventions to reduce inappropriate prescription.

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Collections articles undergo Scientific Reports' standard peer review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. This includes the journal’s policy on competing interests. The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests. For more information, refer to our Collections guidelines.

This Collection has not been supported by sponsorship.