Now, keep up to date
with daily feeds of newly posted stories
about America's Seniors...click on the box
to the left
Fear of side effects shapes older
patients' willingness to take heart
medication
March 1, 2011--Faced with the risk of
developing side effects, even ones as mild
as fatigue, nausea and fuzzy thinking, many
older patients are willing to forego
medications that provide only average
benefit in preventing heart attack,
according to a report by Yale School of
Medicine researchers.
"These patients are willing to take medications
for cardiovascular disease prevention, but
only if they are not linked to what are
generally considered to be acceptable side
effects," said first author Terri R. Fried,
M.D., professor of internal
medicine/geriatrics at Yale School of
Medicine, and the VA Connecticut Healthcare
System.
The report by Fried and co-authors is available
online in theArchives of Internal
Medicine, and will be published in the
June 27 print issue of the journal.
Clinical practice guidelines recommend
medications for primary prevention based on
the patient's risk for developing an illness
and the likelihood that the medication will
reduce this risk.
But Fried and her team suspected that this
might not be consistent with how older
persons think about the benefit and harms of
medications.
To find out, the team evaluated older persons'
willingness to take a medication for primary
prevention of cardiovascular disease based
on its benefits and harms. They conducted
in-person interviews with 356 people living
in the community who were age 65 years or
older.
The participants were asked about their
willingness to take medication for primary
prevention of heart attack (myocardial
infarction).
Most participants (88 percent) said they would
take the medication if it had no adverse
effects and offered about the average risk
reduction of currently available
medications.
In contrast, large proportions (48 to 69
percent) were unwilling or uncertain about
taking such medication if it caused mild
fatigue, nausea, or fuzzy thinking, and only
3 percent would take medication with adverse
effects severe enough to affect daily
functioning.
"Our results show that these 'side effects,'
more aptly considered as adverse events, are
as important to older persons as the
medication's benefits, and need to be
considered important outcomes in their own
right," said Fried.
