Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 10, 2026
06:52
Assessment of Dependence in Activities of Daily Living Among Older Patients in an Acute Care Unit
Published on: September 30, 2020
How much do elders with chronic conditions know about their medications?
Frank Wan-kin Chan1, Fiona Yan-yan Wong, Wing Yee So
1The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong. cwkfrank@cuhk.edu.hk
BMC Geriatrics
|June 14, 2013
Summary
Elderly patients with chronic diseases often lack knowledge of medication side effects, impacting adherence and safety. Higher education and fewer medications improve recall of potential adverse drug reactions.
Area of Science:
- Geriatric Medicine
- Pharmacology
- Public Health
Background:
- Chronic disease management frequently involves multiple medications, necessitating comprehensive patient understanding.
- Inadequate medication knowledge is linked to poor adherence, compromised patient safety, and increased healthcare utilization.
- Assessing medication knowledge in elderly patients with chronic conditions is crucial for optimizing treatment outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the medication knowledge of elderly individuals managing chronic diseases.
- To identify factors influencing medication knowledge, particularly concerning side effects and precautions.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 412 patients aged 60 and above with chronic diseases.
- Participants were recruited from public sector outpatient clinics.
- A semi-structured questionnaire assessed understanding of medication name, regimen, purpose, side effects, and precautions.
Main Results:
- Over half of patients reported clear explanations for medication instructions (52.7%) and purpose (47.9%), but only 11.4% felt side effect explanations were very clear.
- A significant majority (96.1%) could not recall any side effects or precautions for their prescribed medications.
- Increased medication complexity (more prescriptions) and lower educational attainment were associated with poorer knowledge of side effects.
Conclusions:
- Elderly patients with chronic diseases exhibit a general deficit in knowledge regarding medication side effects.
- This knowledge gap poses a risk to medication compliance and overall patient safety.
- Targeted educational interventions are needed to improve medication understanding in this vulnerable population.
Related Concept Videos
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...
01:18Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Metabolism
Geriatric patients show significant variation in how their bodies process medications, which can change how effective and safe treatments are. The liver is the primary organ where drug metabolism occurs, involving two main types of chemical reactions: phase I and II. Phase I metabolism is driven by the cytochrome P450 enzyme system, which includes key types such as CYP3A, CYP2D6, and CYP2C9. Research indicates that while aging doesn't notably alter the levels or activity of these enzymes, it...
01:27Pharmacodynamics in Geriatric Patients: Effects of Age
Age-related pharmacokinetic changes are extensively documented, but understanding age-related pharmacodynamic alterations is relatively limited. This knowledge gap can be partly attributed to the complexity of developing appropriate measures of drug responses compared to bioanalytical methods for determining drug concentrations.Most information regarding age-related differences in human pharmacodynamics originates from cross-sectional studies. However, these studies assume that observed mean...
01:18Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Excretion
In geriatric patients, renal physiology undergoes significant changes, including diminished renal blood flow and a lower glomerular filtration rate (GFR), leading to alterations in medication clearance. Drugs such as aminoglycoside antibiotics, lithium, and digoxin, which rely on glomerular filtration for removal from the body, particularly impact pharmacokinetics. These drugs tend to have slower clearance rates in older adults, necessitating careful dosage considerations.Evaluation of renal...
01:22Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Absorption
As individuals age, their body's physiology evolves, affecting drug pharmacokinetics. The most apparent changes occur in the gastrointestinal tract, where an increase in gastric pH, a delay in gastric emptying, and a reduction in gastrointestinal motility are observed. Remarkably, these changes do not substantially modify the absorption of orally administered drugs, particularly those absorbed via passive diffusion.Transdermal drug delivery emerges as a highly viable method for older adults due...
01:00Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Distribution
Drug distribution in the human body is influenced by several factors, including plasma protein concentration, body composition, blood flow, tissue-protein concentration, and tissue fluid pH. Among these, changes in plasma protein concentration and body composition due to aging significantly affect how drugs are distributed within the body. Specifically, aging is associated with a decrease in albumin levels by about 10% and an increase in α1-acid glycoprotein levels. These alterations are not...