Inappropriate medication prescribing for elderly ambulatory care patients.

Background: Inappropriate medication use in elderly patients has been linked to a large share of adverse drug reactions and to excess health care utilization.

Methods: Trends in the prevalence of potentially inappropriate drug prescribing at ambulatory care visits by elderly persons from 1995 to 2000 were examined with data from office-based physicians in the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and from hospital outpatient departments in the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Explicit criteria were used to identify potentially inappropriate prescribing.