Mismanaging prescription medications among rural elders: the effects of socioeconomic status, health status, and medication profile indicators

• Published in: The Gerontologist 2001-06, Vol.41 (3), p.348-356
• Main Authors: Mitchell, J, Mathews, H F, Hunt, L M, Cobb, K H, Watson, R W
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African Americans; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Elderly; European Continental Ancestry Group; Female; Health; Humans; Male; Medications; North Carolina; Older people; Prescription drugs; Risk Factors; Rural Areas; Rural Population; Rural Population - statistics & numerical data; Self Administration - statistics & numerical data; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomic Status; Treatment Compliance; Treatment Refusal - statistics & numerical data; United States of America
• ISSN: 0016-9013; 1758-5341
• DOI: 10.1093/geront/41.3.348

This study assessed the extent to which community-dwelling rural older adults mismanage their prescription medication regimens and predicted mismanagement of medications from selected socioeconomic, health status, and medication profile characteristics. Personal interviews with 499 community-dwelling adults aged 66 and over taking at least one prescription medication and living in a rural region of the Southeast. With approximately equal numbers of African American and white men and women, the SUDAAN multiple logistic regression procedure was used to predict the mismanagement of prescription medications. The mismanagement of prescribed medication regimens is relatively common among older adults. Those more likely than others to mismanage their regimens are African American, younger, in poorer mental health, with more acute care physician visits, and those who find payment for their medications to be problematic. The implications of the findings for what is known about the self-modification of drug regimens, targeting prescription drug cost benefits or interventions, and the limitations of the study are discussed.