WASHINGTON (AP) — Where seniors live makes a difference not only in how much health care they receive but also the medications they're prescribed — as some miss out on key treatments while others get risky ones, new research shows.
More than 1 in 4 patients on Medicare's prescription drug plan filled at least one prescription for medications long deemed high-risk for seniors, according to the study released Tuesday by the Dartmouth Atlas Project.
Seniors who live in Alexandria, La., were more than three times as likely as those in Rochester, Minn., to receive those potentially harmful drugs, which include muscle relaxants and anxiety relievers that can cause excessive sedation, falls and other problems in older adults.
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