According to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Commonwealth Fund, two in five seniors have not taken all the drugs their doctors prescribed for them in the past year.

The survey reveals that many seniors in the U.S. have to deal with complex and costly drug regimens. Of the 89 percent who reported taking prescription drugs in the past year, nearly half (46 percent) took five or more drugs, more than half (54 percent) had more than one doctor who prescribed them medicines, and about a third (35 percent) used more than one pharmacy. Among seniors with at least three chronic health conditions, nearly three out of four (73 percent) took five or more medications regularly, while more than half (52 percent) didn't take all their drugs as prescribed.

"With two out of five seniors not taking medicines as prescribed, there is a real opportunity to improve patient care both by urging doctors and patients to talk more about these issues and by developing systems to monitor quality and safety," said Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis. "These steps are an important complement to the new Medicare prescription drug coverage."

To view an abstract of the survey, which appears in the journal Health Affairs, visit: http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/
hlthaff.w5.152/DC1.