Polymedicine use among community resident older women: how much a problem?

In a community-based study of older women describing the prevalence of specific medication combinations, the risk of deleterious consequence from polymedicine was concentrated in a minority of older women. There were few prevalent medication combinations, and many of the more common combinations were unavoidable. These results suggest that broad, community-based drug education programs may be less effective than those targeting medical providers and multi-drug users.