1 elderly person in 3 takes 10 pills a day, not all useful

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 9 - One elderly person in three in Italy takes as many as 10 medicines a day and not all of them are useful, national drug agency AIFA said Wednesday.
    It said this was now a major public-health problem and there was a rising risk of harmful interactions between medications.
    "If the presence of two or more diseases already characterizes 75% of people over sixty-five, this condition affects almost all people over eighty," AIFA said.
    "The direct consequence is the use of a high number of drugs, so much so that one in three elderly people takes 10 or more a day, but not always all necessary and often interacting with each other." The Italian Medicines Agency highlighted this "major" public health problem during the presentation in Rome of the 'COSÌsiFA' project, which aims to keep citizens and health workers informed about medicines. (ANSA).