A Study on Drug Use and Medication Management Perspectives among Elderly and the Impact of Professional Oversight
Journal Title: Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research - Year 2018, Vol 12, Issue 5
Abstract
ABSTRACT Introduction: The geriatric population of the world is increasing, who very often suffers from multiple comorbidities and exposed to polypharmacy by multiple treating physicians. Aim: The study attempts to understand the challenges of pharmacotherapy in the elderly and to explore if expert oversight could address such problem optimally. Materials and Methods: A prospective, randomized, observational and interventional community based study was conducted for a year on 75 elderly subjects (>60 years) of either sex in a specific semi urban community who were randomly divided into supervised (n=40) and unsupervised (n=35) groups. The supervised group received professional counselling and guidance throughout the study period where as the other group were just routinely followed up every two months and data were collected in predesigned and validated questionnaire at each intervention. Results: Knowledge regarding medicines like the dose, frequency, duration of treatment etc., was limited across the study subjects. The impact of supervision on medication adherence was evident in the supervised group (p <0.0001). Inappropriate medication was found in almost one third of study subjects with no significant impact of professional supervision. Compliance was a very big challenge across all the elderly subjects and the most common cause for not taking medicines at regular basis was forgetfulness (41.33%) followed by inconvenience of some sort in taking medicines (13.34%) which remained unaffected by supervision. Conclusion: Communication between patient and health care provider has a significant role to play though limited for medication use and its management among the elderly subjects. Continuous monitoring by professional experts can exert a positive impact on the quality of health of the elderly population.
Authors and Affiliations
Arunava Biswas, Nirmalya Sinha, Krishnangshu Ray, Santanu Kumar Tripapathi
Keywords
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- EP ID EP522620
- DOI 10.7860/JCDR/2018/32786.11518
- Views 66
- Downloads 0
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