Non-adherence in older people: intentional or unintentional?

Abstract of a poster presented in the practice research session of the British Pharmaceutical Conference, Manchester, 27-29 Sep 2004. This study measured non-adherence in 100 older patients (median age 82.9yr; 37% male) discharged into the community from a care of the elderly ward over 24 months via dosage unit count (DUC) and self-report questionnaire (medication adherence report scale). Via DUC, 53.1% were adherent with all of their prescribed drugs, 9.2% non-adherent with all prescribed drugs and 37.7% adherent with some of their prescribed drugs. Overall values for methods of deviation with all 126 drugs were that unintentional non-adherence was reported by 38 (10.9%) and intentional by 53 (26.1%) of all 100 patients. Patients were non-adherent with different drugs for different reasons. Concludes that intentional non-adherence predominates in older patients and is dependent upon the drug prescribed.