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DRUG USE AND PRESCRIPTION COMPLIANCE BY ELDERLY PATIENTS
Author(s) -
Turakka H.,
Enlund H.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.622
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2710
pISSN - 0269-4727
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2710.1978.tb00112.x
Subject(s) - drug , medical prescription , medicine , compliance (psychology) , prescription drug , pharmacology , intensive care medicine , psychology , social psychology
Summary This study was conducted in an isolated community in the countryside among eighty‐seven elderly people living in an elderly folk's home. The subjects who were interviewed by pharmacy students during a health education scheme had used 278 medicines on prescription and eighty‐seven OTC medicines during the previous 2 weeks before the study. In all, 91% of the subjects had used some drugs during the control period. The largest amount of different items per individual patient was twelve prescribed and seven OTC drugs. From 283 prescriptions, fifty‐eight were used less frequently or with lower doses than ordered and seven more frequently or with higher doses than ordered by the physician. At least 30% of the OTC drugs would be considered as being unquestionably overused. The appearance of prescription non‐compliance was most common among drugs which could be life‐saving to the patient. The reason for the errors were mostly misunderstandings in the therapeutic rationale behind the prescriptions, partly due to the inadequate instructions given on the label. Even if the lack of directions does not explain all the errors, more comprehensive and motivating information either from physicians or pharmacists may have improved the situation, possibly together with other methods, such as an auxiliary dispensing box.