Religious, Belief Medication, and Adherence Among Elderly with Chronic Diseases: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study...

The prevalence of chronic diseases is becoming a global health problem requiring urgent treatment and intervention to achieve quality improvement. The number of mortality, and poor adherence have increased over time among elderly.

To identify factors associated with adherence among elderly with chronic diseases with focus on beliefs about medicine in underserved populations, Indonesia.

An observational multicenter cross-sectional survey was conducted among elderly who diagnosed with chronic diseases and received medication for over six months, and attended healthcare centers. We applied binary logistic regression to assess associations of sociodemographic factors, medication beliefs, and adherence.

Among 574 chronic patients selected from three primary healthcare centers, more than two-thirds showed non-adherence to medication. Additionally, over half were female (63.9%), have comorbidity (57.5%), and non-Papuans (54.4%). Multivariate analysis showed that being old (adjusted OR, aOR: 1.028 [95% CI, 1.009-1.046]), beliefs on BMQ-concern (aOR: 1.091 [95% CI, 1.002-1.187]), and had income less than 5K IDR(aOR: 3.630 [95% CI, 1.441-9.148] increased the likelihood of adherence. Being Moslem (aOR: 0.535 [95% CI, 0.302-0.949] decreased the likelihood of adherence.

In conclusion, to improve adherence levels, healthcare providers must repeat the concern on side effects of medication during visiting healthcare facility. In addition, healthcare providers should be able to identify religious practices or ritual practices are found in their area. These might affect to their behavior on taking medication. Additionally, empowering health providers including pharmacist may help patients to provide structural and functional support for those with chronic diseases.