Patients taking more than 10 drugs exceeded 2 million

"Urgently for full-scale promotion of the industrial complex management business"

The number of multi-drug-drug patients who took more than 10 drugs at once exceeded 2 million last year.

 

Korea ranks the highest among seven OECD countries that submitted statistics on multi-drug consumption, and the situation is serious.

 

On the 20th, In Jae-keun, a member of Democratic Party of Korea, analyzed the national control data submitted by the NHIS and made this announcement.

 

When taking multi-drugs, there is a high risk of drug effects or side effects due to drug interactions.

 

According to a study by the NHIS, if older people 65 years of age or older take 5 or more drugs, they increase their risk of hospitalization by 18% and death by 25% compared to taking 1 to 4 drugs.

 

The reality of taking multi-drug drugs in Korea is at a serious level.

 

Last year, the OECD published the percentage of 75-year-old patients (as of 2017) who chronically take five or more drugs for 90 days or more, and Korea was the highest among the seven countries that submitted statistics.

 

The proportion of Korea was 68.1%, and the average of 7 countries was 48.3%.

 

The multi-drug prescription rate in Korea is increasing every year from 3.3% in 2016 to 3.5% in 2017, 3.8% in 2018, and 4.2% in 2019.

 

The higher the age, the higher the multi-drug prescription rate was, and as of 2019, the multi-drug prescription rate of the 75-year-old or older population reached 23.6%.

 

The multi-drug prescription rate is the number of people who took 10 or more drugs for 60 days or more in the year divided by the number of people who received the prescription at least once in the year.

 

The number of patients taking multi-drugs is also increasing.

 

The number of multi-drugs users from 1,548,000 in 2016 increased every year to 2,012,000 last year.

 

During the same period, the multi-drug taking rate also increased from 3.0% to 3.8%.

 

Looking at multi-drugs users by age, as of 2019, 841,000 people aged 75 and over (22.4% dose rate), 600,000 people aged 65-75 (12.2% dose rate), and 401,000 people aged 55-65 (4.8%), 127,000 people aged 45 to 55 (1.4%), and 43,000 people under the age of 45 (0.2%).

 

There was also a difference in the status of multi-drugs users by income.

 

As of last year, the first quintile was the highest at 5.8%, followed by the 10th (4.2%) and the ninth (3.7%).

 

The 2nd to 8th quartiles showed similar figures around 3.0%.

 

This means that those with higher income levels than those with intermediate income levels and those with the lowest income level than those with higher income levels had a higher rate of taking multi-drugs.

 

In particular, in the case of medical benefits, the multi-drugs use rate reached 19.4%, requiring special attention.

 

She said, "The current state of multi-drugs use in Korea is another aspect of an excellent pharmaceutical system," and pointed out that "the government needs attention for improvement." She stressed that it is urgent to manage multi-drug products for the elderly and low-income groups, including medical care recipients, to promote it as an official project.