Older people tend to have more long-term, chronic illnesses such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease than do younger people. Because they may have a number of diseases or disabilities at the same time, it is common for older people to take many different drugs.
Many older people owe their health in part to new and improved medicines and vaccines.
But using medicines may be riskier for older adults, especially when several medicines are used at one time. Taking different medicines is not always easy to do right. It may be hard to remember what each medicine is for, how you should take it and when you should take it. This is especially true of people with memory problems or dementia. Medicines may act differently in older people than in younger people.