Team:Nottingham/test/human practices/elderly mediaction report
Do the elderly have difficulties taking prescription medication?
13th of August 2018
This report will analyse a range of literature with the objective of identifying whether the elderly have any difficulties in taking prescription medications and if so, why this is. Firstly, it is important to understand the context of what the current climate is for elderly people taking prescription medication In the United States, a recent report by the Department of Health indicated that 55% of the elderly do not take medication according to the doctor’s orders and approximately 200,000 elderly people are hospitalised due to adverse reactions to their medication. 1) These trends are supported by cholesterol studies, which found that 57% of elderly patients using statin therapy stopped taking them after 6 months and 74% stopped taking them by the end of five years, despite needing these medications for their entire life in most cases. 2) This suggests that already, there is a clear issue with the elderly not taking their medication as prescribed. As the reports demonstrate, this is having a huge impact on hospitalisation levels as a result and puts the elderly at a greater risk of death.
When analysing why the elderly are having difficulties in taking prescription medication correctly, Marlo Solitto suggests that memory loss is a key issue, linking this to elderly people who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. 3) The UK Alzheimer corroborates this, stating that sometimes people with dementia refuse to take prescribed medication adding that we must not just assume the patient is being ‘difficult’. 4) Dr Kim Notenboom took a alternative approach. Her research concluded that physical constraints such as impaired vision and poor handgrip made it harder for elderly people to open and remove medication from packaging and then use the medication. Dr. Notenboom argues that these constraints increase as people age. 5) Dr Rohan A. Elliott highlights the need for the doctors prescribing the medication to be more aware of the complexity of medication regimens. Dr. Elliott comments that elderly people are prescribed multiple drugs per day, having to take medications at different times with a combination of before food, after food and different doses. 6) Dr Paula Rochon adds weight to Elliott’s argument, commenting that optimising drug therapy is an essential part of caring for an older person. 7) Lind Andrist, Patrice Nicholas and Karen Wolf give suggestions on how to ensure drugs are appropriately prescribed for the elderly. They comment that it is appropriate to start most drugs at half the usual dose and prescribe drugs that need to only be taken once daily as a single combination pill instead of several different pills. 8) This reflects the need for medication that is prescribed for elderly patients to be simple 1 pill doses with easy to follow instructions.
In conclusion, the analysis of the literature has demonstrated that elderly people do have difficulties in taking prescription medication. A lot of these difficulties link to pre-exisitng health conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, however it is also important to note the role played by physical constraints in the elderly and the complexity of medication nowadays. When exploring how to integrate this research into our project, it suggests that it will be most effective to deliver the phage therapy as a 1-dose capsule table that can be taken by elderly patients. This will address the difficulties that elderly people face in taking medication by reducing the complexity of prescription medications.
- Kim Notenboom, “Practical Problems with Medication Use that Older People Experience: A Qualitative Study” – WILEY Journal of American Geriatrics Society, (December 2014, Vol 62) p.9
- Dr R A Elliott, “Problems with Medication Use in the Elderly: An Australian perspective” Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research, (Volume 36, 2006) p. 61
- Linda Andrist, Patrice Nicholas and Karen Wolf, “A History of Nursing Ideas” (2006) p.247
