Potential health impacts of multiple drug prescribing for older people: a case-control study.

Using a prescription-survey linkage dataset for 4506 people aged ≥50 years from six general practices, the null hypothesis that multiple drug prescribing was not associated with changes in health over a 3-year time-period was investigated. There was a significant trend in the adjusted association between higher levels of multidrug therapy and deterioration in both physical and psychological health over a 3-year time period. The study highlights the potential need for assessing drug prescribing in terms of overall health.