<p> The purpose of this quantitative meta-analytic study was to investigate the prescribing medication practices of primary care providers among elderly patients 65 years of age and older. Two statistical analyses were conducted on approximately 3 million geriatric patients in a variety of health care settings throughout the United States. The first meta-analysis involved 26 peer-reviewed studies that compared the prescribing medication practices of primary care providers among geriatric patients in the United States with the prescribing practice recommendations of the Beers Criteria. The second meta-analysis involved 8 peer-reviewed studies that compared the prescribing medication practices in America of physicians who received training in geriatric medicine with physicians who received training in general medicine. The predictor variable (i.e., independent or observed variable) was the prescribing medication practices of primary care providers. The outcome variable (i.e., dependent or expected variable) was the prescribing practice recommended by the Beers Criteria. The third variable was the moderating variable of physician training in geriatric medicine. The first findings revealed that primary care providers in the United States prescribed potentially inappropriate medications to geriatric patients. The second findings indicated that physicians without training in geriatric medicine prescribed more potentially inappropriate medications than those with training in geriatric medicine. Serious health care dilemmas among the geriatric population are high incidences of inappropriate dispensation of prescriptions by primary care providers. Inappropriate prescriptions are common in geriatric clinical settings among primary care providers who function in a fragmented medication prescription system and who lack training in geriatric medicine.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3574902 |
| Date | 20 November 2013 |
| Creators | Adams, Adrine S. |
| Publisher | University of Phoenix |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
Page generated in 0.0424 seconds