Polypharmacy — taking five or more meds at a time — leads to side effects, unnecessary hospitalizations and premature deaths. Researchers and pharmacists are seeking solutions to this serious public health problem that disproportionately affects older adults.

An economic analysis suggests that targeting aging offers potentially larger economic gains than eradicating individual diseases. Slowing aging to increase life expectancy by 1 year is worth US$38 trillion, and by 10 years, US$367 trillion.

The Society Pages (TSP) is an open-access social science project headquartered in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota

And what else you need to know today.

Prioritizing health of the world’s population would add 10 healthy years in midlife and $12 trillion to the global economy .