Older adults generally use more medications than do younger adults to treat age-related chronic diseases, such as arthritis, heart disease, and diabetes.

This standardized measure may identify those at increased risk for poor medication adherence and, more broadly, IADL difficulty.ĪS adults age, adherence to prescribed medication regimens becomes one of the most complex instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). Furthermore, in community-dwelling older women who largely reported no difficulty in taking medications, the HMS identified nearly 22% who could not write or implement a routine medication regimen. In adjusted regression analyses, the schedule was most highly associated with memory and the pillbox with learning and executive function.Ĭonclusions. The HMS had concurrent validity for participant-reported IADL difficulty. In addition, performance on the schedule and the pillbox predicted concurrent difficulty. The 7% of participants who reported difficulty in any IADL also performed poorly on the HMS. Results. Although fewer than 2% of participants reported difficulty in taking medications, nearly 22% were completely unable to complete the schedule, fill the pillbox, or both. These scored and timed performances were evaluated for their ability to predict concurrent and 3-year participant-reported difficulty in performing instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and for their associations with memory and attention.

Methods. The authors gave a hypothetical physician's prescription for two common medications (antibiotics and aspirin) to 360 high-functioning, community-dwelling, older participants in the Women's Health and Aging Study II and asked them to fill in a daily schedule for taking these medications and to fill in the compartments of a daily pillbox. The authors thus developed and validated the Hopkins Medication Schedule (HMS), a new objective test of one's ability to understand and implement a routine prescription medication. The health implications of improper medication compliance, and failure to identify it, are considerable. Background. Medications often represent the first line of defense in preventing or delaying the progression of chronic diseases.

Daily medication schedule pdf