Medication adherence and management in older people Identify and intervene

Medication non-adherence rates in older people range between 45 and 75% due to several reasons. A descriptive, quantitative study is being conducted with the purpose of identifying older people's knowledge about medication management, their difficulties, and strategies used.The sample is composed of older people (aged 65 years or over) who use day care centers in Coimbra. Data are collected using a questionnaire designed by the authors. The AGITE (Adesao e Gestao por Idosos da TErapeutica, Older People's Medication Adherence and Management) tool has 4 open-ended questions and 26 closed-ended questions. It is used in combination with the 6-item Cognitive Impairment Test (6CIT) and the Graffar scale. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing, Nursing School of Coimbra. The final version of the questionnaire was applied to a sample composed of 128 older adults with a mean age of 78.24 years. The preliminary results show that the questionnaire is easy to apply. With regard to its psychometric properties, and based on the exploratory factor analysis, three dimensions emerged with an acceptable internal consistency (0.6-0.8). The AGITE tool may be an adequate tool for identifying older people's difficulties and designing nursing strategies to help them overcome these difficulties. For this reason, the study should continue being developed.