Medication Compliance among Elderly Persons Living in Residential Homes in Alexandria

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Gerontological Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alexandria, Egypt

2 Faculty of Farmacy, University of Alexandria, Egypt

Abstract

Elderly persons are major consumers of drugs. This is because of the age related changes; prevalence of chronic diseases and the use of over-the-counter medications to relieve minor ailments. This multiple drug use may affect the elderly compliance to drug regimen as it may lead to his confusion and forgetting the time of the therapy. The study aims to determine the extent of drug compliance among elderly persons living in elderly homes. All governmental institutes were included in the study and the sample comprised 106 elderly persons. Most of the elders [84%] were non-compliant with their prescribed drugs. A significant relation was observed between compliance and limited income, drug cost, drug side effects and forgetting the drug dose. While no relation was observed between age, sex, social status, educational level, type of chronic disease and elderly compliance. This necessitates the importance of dose supervision and observation of the elderly's behavior in taking and following prescribed drugs.

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