Appropriateness of Vitamin and Mineral Prescription Orders for Residents of Health Related Facilities*

A study was made of the medical charts of 433 elderly patients admitted to four Health Related Facilities in upper New York State, to determine whether the respective prescription orders for vitamins and minerals were appropriate to the given diagnoses and, if not, identify the variables correlated with inappropriateness. For 11.1 percent of the patients, vitamins or minerals were prescribed when there was no specific diagnostic indication, or they were not prescribed when the medical diagnosis indicated that they should have been. Women and medicaid patients were more likely than men and self-paying patients to be treated inappropriately with respect to vitamins and minerals, but the differences were not satistically significant.