MEDICATION-TAKING BEHAVIORS IN THE HIGH-FUNCTIONING AND LOW-FUNCTIONING ELDERLY - MACARTHUR FIELD STUDIES OF SUCCESSFUL AGING

OBJECTIVE: To describe and compare medication-taking behaviors in the high- and low-functioning elderly living in the community. DESIGN: A c ross-sectional design with data collected by interview. SETTING: The s tudy included 5 counties in the southern Piedmont area of North Caroli na. PARTICIPANTS: Respondents included 242 elderly aged 70-79 years se lected from the Piedmont Health Survey of the Elderly and the MacArthu r Research Program on Successful Aging. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures included strategies used to remember to take drugs, reasons given for skipping medications, factors associated with understanding of drugs, the number of over-the-counter and prescribed drugs used, an d the number of drugs used in therapeutic categories. RESULTS: Low-fun ctioning elderly white respondents took greater numbers of prescribed drugs than did blacks or high-functioning whites. Respondents had a be tter understanding of prescribed than of over-the-counter drugs, with the poorest understanding of nutritional supplements. Men and blacks h ad poorer understanding of drugs than women and whites. The strategies subjects used to remember to take drugs included (from most to least frequently used): making it a routine activity, reading labels, a self -devised memory aid, a habit, being reminded by someone else, sorting, and noticing symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should provide their p atients with information about over-the-counter agents as well as pres cribed drugs, be alert to cues that blacks and men give indicating the ir need for additional explanation about a drug's purposes, and be sen sitive to differential prescribing patterns with respect to race. When planning a regimen for multiple doses of a drug, clinicians should ac count for their patients' tendencies to use routine activities as memo ry prompts.