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Biomedical subjects

S M Alibhai

Publications and source records attributed to S M Alibhai.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Medication education of acutely hospitalized older patients.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the amount of time spent providing medication education to older patients, the impact of medication education on patients' knowledge and satisfaction, and barriers to providing medication education. DESIGN: Telephone survey of patients within 48 hours of hospital discharge and direct survey of physicians and pharmacists. SETTING: Internal medicine ward in a tertiary care teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Patients 65 years of age and over regularly taking at least one medication. MEASUREMENTS: Patient demographics, medication use, time spent receiving or providing medication education, and satisfaction scores. MAIN RESULTS: Forty-seven respondents with a mean age of 77.1 years reported that physicians spent a mean of 10.5 minutes (range, 0-60 minutes) and pharmacists spent a mean of 5.3 minutes (range, 0-40 minutes) providing medication education. Fifty-one percent reported receiving no education from either physician or pharmacist, and only 30% reported receiving written medication instructions. Respondents were generally quite satisfied with their education. Physicians identified one or more barriers to providing education 51% of the time and pharmacists 80%. Lack of time was the most common barrier (18%) identified by physicians, but pharmacists cited lack of notification of discharge plans (41%) and lack of time (39%) as the main barriers. Respondents made many medication errors and knew little about their medications. CONCLUSIONS: Although older hospitalized patients received little medication education or written information and made many medication errors with and without medication education, approximately one half of physicians perceived no barriers to providing education.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

The controversy surrounding cholesterol treatment in older people.

The evidence of the benefit of lowering cholesterol levels in seniors from epidemiologic studies and RCTs is conflicting. Epidemiologic studies suggest that elevated cholesterol levels in elderly people may be a marker of good health. In some cases, lowering cholesterol in seniors may even prove harmful. Conversely, RCTs of lipid-lowering therapy have shown clear benefits in reducing coronary events in younger and middle-aged adults with or without pre-existing CAD. Both the epidemiologic studies and the RCTs we evaluated have methodologic concerns that make generalization to all seniors difficult. One epidemiologic study, in fact, found that there may be a physiologic decline in cholesterol levels as people age into their 70s and beyond [16]. We still do not appear to have a clear insight into the precise role cholesterol plays in seniors, especially those over the age of 75. In the future, as more data becomes available from RCTs and meta-analyses evaluating seniors in the older age group [15], we hope to have a better understanding of how to treat hypercholesterolaemia in this population. Until further studies are published, treatment plans need to be individualized, and the risks and benefits of treatment on various outcomes must be weighed according to the best evidence we have available.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1997

The placebo effect.

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Clinical Trials as Topic↗