Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 4, 2026
07:13
Digital Home-Monitoring of Patients after Kidney Transplantation: The MACCS Platform
Published on: April 12, 2021
Changes in functional health, changes in medication beliefs, and medication adherence
Benjamin Schüz1, Susanne Wurm, Jochen P Ziegelmann
1German Centre of Gerontology, Manfred-von-Richthofen-Strasse 2, Berlin, Germany. benjamin.schuez@dza.de
Summary
Changes in older adults' functional health influence their medication beliefs, which in turn impact medication adherence. Targeting these beliefs may improve adherence in elderly patients with multiple conditions.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Health Psychology
- Pharmacoepidemiology
Background:
- Medication adherence is critical for therapeutic success, especially in older adults with multiple chronic conditions.
- Medication beliefs significantly influence adherence, but their origins, particularly in relation to health changes, are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if changes in functional health predict changes in medication beliefs among older adults.
- To determine if alterations in medication beliefs subsequently predict medication adherence.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study involving 309 older adults (aged 65-85) with multiple illnesses, assessed over a 6-month period.
- Latent true change modeling was employed to analyze changes in functional health and medication beliefs.
- Medication adherence was assessed using the Reported Adherence to Medication Scale and regressed on changes in beliefs measured by the Beliefs About Medicines Questionnaire.
Main Results:
- Both functional health and medication beliefs demonstrated change over the study period.
- Increased physical limitations were associated with heightened specific necessity and specific concern beliefs regarding medications.
- Changes in specific necessity beliefs predicted intentional adherence lapses, while changes in general overuse beliefs predicted unintentional adherence lapses.
Conclusions:
- Medication beliefs are influenced by health-related changes in older adults.
- Altered medication beliefs directly impact individual medication adherence patterns.
- Interventions should consider targeting medication beliefs and supporting older adults in interpreting health changes to enhance adherence.
Related Concept Videos
01:28Drug Therapy
The advent of drug therapy has profoundly shaped modern mental health care, providing targeted treatments for a range of psychological disorders. Psychotherapeutic drugs, classified into antianxiety, antidepressant, and antipsychotic medications, address symptoms across anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and schizophrenia. While these medications have transformed patient outcomes, they require careful management due to their potential side effects and limitations.
Antianxiety Medications
Antianxiety Medications
01:15Drug Dosing: Geriatric Patients
Elderly individuals encompass a diverse population with varying degrees of age-related physiological changes. Defining the elderly presents challenges, as the geriatric population is often arbitrarily categorized as individuals older than 65. However, many individuals in this group lead active and healthy lives, with an increasing number surpassing 85 years and falling into the older elderly category. Physiological changes associated with aging impact performance capacity and homeostatic...
01:26FDA Approved Drugs: Changes to Approved Drugs
Post-approval, manufacturers may modify an approved new or generic drug product. Such modifications can encompass alterations in the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API), manufacturing process, formulation, batch size, manufacturing site, and container closure system (FDA Guidance for Industry, April 2004). Often, a drug product may undergo multiple changes.These modifications require careful evaluation to determine their potential impact on the drug product's identity, strength, quality,...
01:29Therapeutic Drug Monitoring: Affecting Factors
Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) is the clinical practice of measuring specific drug levels in a patient's blood or body tissues to manage and optimize therapy. TDM is crucial for drugs with narrow therapeutic windows, like warfarin and phenytoin, where incorrect doses can lead to treatment failure or severe side effects. This monitoring ensures the dosage administered is within a safe and effective range. The factors affecting therapeutic drug monitoring include:Patient-Specific Factors:a.
01:30Stress Prevention and Stress Management Techniques VI
Adopting a healthier lifestyle often requires overcoming significant challenges, but leveraging psychological, social, and cultural resources can facilitate meaningful change. Effective self-change hinges on understanding and applying key tools such as motivation and goal setting, which help sustain efforts toward long-term health benefits.
Motivation and Self-Determination
Motivation, the driving force behind behavior, plays a pivotal role at every stage of the change process. The research...
Motivation and Self-Determination
Motivation, the driving force behind behavior, plays a pivotal role at every stage of the change process. The research...
01:29Pharmacogenetic Phenotypes: Alterations in Pharmacokinetics, Drug Targets and Biologic Milieu
Genetic variations significantly influence drug response through pharmacokinetics, receptor interactions, and biologic milieu modifications. Pharmacokinetic alterations impact drug metabolism and clearance, affecting efficacy and toxicity. Variants in drug-metabolizing enzymes, such as CYP2C9 and CYP2C19, alter drug activation and elimination. For example, CYP2C9 loss-of-function variants require lower warfarin doses to prevent excessive bleeding, while CYP2C19 variants reduce clopidogrel...