WEDNESDAY, June 12, 2024 (HealthDay News) — The burden of adverse effects of medical treatment (AEMT) is increasing, with the proportion of all cases accounted for by the increasing rates seen in older adults, according to a study published online June 11 in BMJ Quality & Safety.

Liangquan Lin, from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking University Medical College in Beijing, used the Global Burden of Disease framework to examine global and national longitudinal patterns in AEMT incidence from 1990 to 2019. To address heterogeneity across and within nations, data were stratified by sociodemographic index (SDI) quintiles, age groups, and sex.

Lin found that from 1990 to 2019, the global population increased 44.6 percent, but there was a faster increase in AEMT incidents (59.3 percent). The net drift was 0.631 percent per year in the global incidence rate. Globally, there was an increase in the proportion of all cases accounted for by older adults and in the incidence rate among older adults. Lower SDI regions had decreasing incidence rates, while the high SDI region had much higher and increasing incidence rates. In the high SDI region, the age effects showed that the incidence rate was higher among older adults. The period effects showed that the incidence of risk increased after 2002 globally. A significant increase in incidence risk was seen after 2012 in lower SDI regions.

“As the global population aging advances alongside the increasing quantity of health care services provided, measures need to be taken to address the continuously rising burden of AEMT among the older population,” Lin writes.

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