Drug therapy can substantially modify the risk and progression of conditions that cause disability.
Determining prescribed medications is also useful in epidemiologic research as an adjunct to self-report for determining disease presence and severity. Conditions such as angina, congestive heart failure, diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer, and Parkinson's disease are treated with specific prescription drugs. This information may be useful for planning further research on medication use in the older population. Each participant was asked if she had taken any prescription or nonprescription medication in the past 2 weeks. If she answered yes, she was asked to present all medicine containers.