Medications of Elderly in a Pharmacists’ Perspective

Context: Elderly population is one of the less studied areas in health sciences. Management of elderly health issues needs special consideration in all aspects right from the problem identification. India’s elderly population is growing very fast, it is expected that elderly population in India will increase by 270% by 2050. Hence health related problems of elderly in India needs special attention. Objective: To analyze the status of geriatric population in India by focusing on health status on the basis of demography, incidence of diseases, use availability and appropriateness of medications and role of pharmacist in reducing the inappropriateness in elderly care. Materials and Methods: Systematic review of 50 articles conducted. Participants with less than 60 years, articles from other countries discussing geriatric issues other than medications were excluded. Results and Discussion: There exists diversity in disease and health conditions on the basis of demography. Diversity also exists in medicine use among inpatients and outpatients. Major medication related problem was due to inappropriateness in medication use. Pharmacist intervention in geriatric improves the total care and rationality of medications. Conclusion: Better health status results were in urban elders. Implementation of national health programs to support elderly health care can extend good quality geriatric care to rural areas as well. Extending clinical pharmacist services can significantly improve rational use of medicines in geriatric population.