The economic impact of wasted prescription medication in an outpatient population of older adults

The causes and costs of outpatient medication I waste are not known. We rep ort the results of a cross-sectional pilot survey of medication waste in a convenience sample of 73 New Hampshire retirement community residents aged 65 years or older. We used questionnaires and in-home pill counts to determ ine the annual occurrence of medication waste, defined as no intention to t ake leftover medicines prescribed within the past year, Mean individual ann ual cost of wasted medication was $30.47 (range = $0-$131.56), Waste repres ented 2.3% of total medication costs. The main causes for waste included: r esolution of the condition for which the medication was prescribed (37.4%), patient-perceived ineffectiveness (22.6%), prescription change by the phys ician (15.8%), and patient-perceived adverse effects (14.4%). individual co sts were modest, but if $30 per person represents a low estimate of average annual waste, the Us national cost for adults older than 65 years would to p $1 billion per year.