The Importance of Medication Compliance in the Elderly

In laymen’s terms, medication compliance is whether or not a patient takes a medication as prescribed. It is incredibly important for the effective implementation of a treatment plan, but sometimes there are major barriers associated with medication compliance. This is especially profound in the elderly population, who are the population most likely to have multiple chronic illnesses. Most of these can be related to two major issues: complicated instructions and a lack of investment in the treatment plan.

For the elderly, taking medication can be complicated because of the sheer number of medications that are prescribed for them. In 2010, it was reported that the average elderly individual was on 8-13 different medications. Furthermore, each medication has a unique set of instructions. For example, some drugs need to be taken with food, while some other drugs need to be taken without food. Certain medications can’t be taken after eating a grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice. Other medications require you to monitor your potassium intake. Remembering the instructions surrounding one medication can be difficult enough, but trying to accommodate each of the different requirements of multiple medications can be too much for elderly patients. This will lead them to take the medication incorrectly, rendering it ineffective, or it can lead them to not take the medication at all.

A second barrier can be found in understanding the treatment plan. Most of the time, elderly patients aren’t entirely informed about their treatment plan, and, a lot of the time, it is because they don’t know what questions to ask their doctor. They sometimes will not know why they are on a medication, and they are not informed of what to expect while taking the medication. As a result of this, they will take a medication and experience unexpected side effects. The side effects of the medications give them more reason to not take their medication as prescribed. This can be compounded by a lack of education as to why they are on the medication. If an elderly individual isn’t sure why they are taking a medication that makes them feel nauseous as a result then they most likely won’t continue to take that medication as prescribed.

Unfortunately, these aren’t the only two barriers to medication compliance, and there are numerous barriers that we will have to overcome in order to achieve complete medication compliance. There are several reasons that this happens, including inadequate patient education, a lack of interest in treatment plan, issues surrounding dementia and confusion, and more. Fortunately, there are a lot of resources for seniors and caregivers that help to resolve a lot of these issues. In our next post we will go over different tips for medication compliance.