Knowledge and attitudes to prescribed drugs in young and elderly patients

Increasing patient knowledge of drug therapy is said to improve compliance and may reduce adverse drug reactions. We assessed patient knowledge of prescribed drugs in fifty patients attending a hypertension clinic [outpatients] and in elderly patients on admission to (n = 129) and on discharge from (n = 100) an acute geriatric assessment unit. We found that 88% of outpatients, 40% of elderly admissions, and 41% of elderly discharges knew the indications for their therapy; only 40% of outpatients, 8% of elderly admissions and 12% of elderly discharges could name their medications. Patients said that their information came principally from the prescribing doctor. In a further study we assessed doctor, nurse, young and elderly patients' ability to discriminate between commonly prescribed white tablets. Errors were made by the doctors on 25% occasions, nurses on 40% occasions and patients on 61% occasions. Young patients made errors 67% of the time and elderly patients 55% of the time. These studies indicate that both inpatients and outpatients, both young and elderly have poor knowledge of their medications. In addition, many commonly prescribed drugs are not easily distinguishable by patient, prescriber or drug administrator. We conclude that there is a need to improve knowledge both in patients and in prescribers. We suggest that prescribers should consider the colour and shape of medications prescribed concurrently as many "little white tablets" are difficult to tell apart.