Today, about one in every eight Americans is over age 65, and this population accounts for 34 percent of personal health care expenditures. Yet in a review of clinical trials published in major medical journals, Donna Zulman and colleagues found that one in five trials excluded patients based on their age alone, and almost half of the remaining trials excluded individuals using criteria that could disproportionately impact older adults, such as physical frailty or impaired cognition.

More about Zulman, RWJF Clinical Scholar, says older adults often excluded from clinical trials >