A new study found out that 42 percent of the medical routines prescribed to seniors are complicated and can often lead to confusion and noncompliance.
Dr. Lee Lindquist, a geriatrician and associate professor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago worked with colleagues to interview 200 patients aged 70 to 80. To determine their medical routines, they asked the number of times the elderly participants needed to take their medication and how they were supposed to consume them on a daily basis.
After collecting the data, they tabulated the responses to draw their conclusion. Their analysis revealed that 85 of the participants, or 42.5 percent, were given complicated medical routines, even if they could be simplified. Out of the 85 participants, 53 should be able to take their medications once a day while the rest can do at least twice a day. More straightforward routine recommendations are based from the analysis of a doctor and a pharmacist who were not involved in the study.
Simplifying medical routines could benefit those senior patients who often forget their medications.
"If you consolidate the regimen, you can know that you're done at the end of the day," Lindquist told Reuters Health.
Despite their recommendation to simplify the routine through consolidation, researchers urged patients to first consult their health providers.
"That dialogue has to start; patients need to ask their pharmacist or physician whether they can cut down medications or consolidate them," Lindquist added. The big questions patients should ask their doctors, she added, is, "can I make it easier on me?"
Lindquist suggested that senior patients should be more specific on details and proactively ask for simpler medical routine as soon as they find the list confusing or complicated.
Further details of the study can be read on the April 4 issue of Patient Education and Counseling.
