Self-reported medication adherence in older patients

Abstract

Patient factor such as older age is one of the key factors that influence medication adherence. The number of people over 65 years of age is increasing in Serbia and thus the number of patients with chronic conditions which leads to increased number of medication used. The study about the medication use in Serbian patients over 65 years was a part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 EuroAgeism project. The questionnaire used for this study was designed by the main research institution Charles University, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Kralove. The study included 450 patients over 65 years. Patients were recruited by pharmacists and data were collected in community pharmacies in three cities located in geographically different regions in Serbia (150 patients from each city). The self-reported medication adherence was estimated as a percentage value, from 0% as non-adherent to 100% as total adherent patient. Most of the patients were female (59.1%) and was old in average 73.0 years (SD=6.9, Range: 65-93). The average number of prescribed medications was 5.0 (SD=2.7, Range:1-14, Med=5) and the most prevalent was cardiovascular disease (89.1%). The average value of self-reported medication adherence was 92.4% (SD=13.4). The most common reasons for non–adherence were forgetfulness (55.8%), fear of side effects/addiction because of taking too many medications (11.0%), high price (8.7%), and complexity of medication regimen (8.7%). Correlation between number of drugs and adherence value was positive, but not statistically significant (ρ=0.06, p>0.05). This study has confirmed that older patients tend to take multiple medications in a day. Even though our expectation was that more drugs would affect medication adherence, the correlation was not statistically significant. Since forgetfulness is the most common cause of non-adherence, community pharmacists should remind patients more about the proper medication use.