On this page: About the National Data | Methodology | History
About the National Data
Data
Data Source: Medical Expenditure Panel (MEPS), AHRQ
Baseline: 15.9 percent of adults aged 65 years and over used inappropriate medications in 2015
Target: 11.2 percent
Projection
Methodology
The Beers criteria provide a list of medications that are generally considered inappropriate when given to elderly people because these medications may pose more risk than benefit. For a wide variety of individual reasons, the medications listed tend to cause side effects in the elderly due to the physiologic changes of aging. The criteria were created through consensus of a panel of experts. According to the established Beers criteria, drugs that should always be avoided for adults over age 65 include barbiturates, flurazepam, meprobamate, chlorpropamide, meperidine, pentazocine, trimethobenzamide, belladonna alkaloids, dicyclomine, hyoscyamine, and propantheline. Drugs that should often be avoided for adults over age 65 include carisoprodol, chlorzoxazone, cyclobenzaprine, metaxalone, methocarbamol, amitriptyline, chlordiazepoxide, diazepam, doxepin, indomethacin, dipyridamole, ticlopidine, methyldopa, reserpine, disopyramide, oxybutynin, chlorpheniramine, cyproheptadine, diphenhydramine, hydroxyzine, promethazine, and propoxyphene. Individuals are considered to receive inappropriate medications if they indicate that they purchased any of the medications on the Beers list as listed in the numerator section.
History
1. Because Healthy People 2030 objectives have a desired direction (e.g., increase or decrease), the confidence level of a one-sided prediction interval can be used as an indication of how likely a target will be to achieve based on the historical data and fitted trend.