Medication Adherence Issues with Geriatric Patients

Introduction

Nonadherence to medication exposes the elderly to multiple comorbidities as compared to younger patients. Among the most common chronic complications among old patients are prolonged by failure to adhere to the recommended medication (University of Rochester Medical Center, 2018). For instance, old people who fail to stick to diabetes medication such as artificial insulin are bound to face a myriad of diabetes-related complications. In the practicum setting regarding adherence to medication, I discovered some of the reasons why geriatric patients fail to adhere to their medication.

According to Yap, Thirumoorthy, & Kwan (2016), the elderly patients fail to adhere to medication for various factors the common ones being medication factors, socioeconomic factors, and healthcare provider factors. Patient factors include cognitive abilities, memory, depression, anxiety, and so on. Medication factors include issues like drug formulation, packaging, cost, formulation, and storage issues. Healthcare provider factors include poor communication, lack of trust, and failure to involve patients. In the healthcare practice, it is crucial that patients be informed of the consequences of nonadherence and failing to follow the recommended healthcare practices. The failure of the elderly to adhere to medication presents a huge challenge to healthcare officers across the practice.

In conclusion, the implications of failing to adhere to medical advice among the geriatric patients on their health can be dire.  Most chronic problems affecting these people are hard to manage primarily because of adherence issues. According to Marengoni, et al. (2016), some of the strategies that can be used to improve medication adherence among the old patients include giving education to both the patients and respective caregivers, use of adherence aids, optimization of treatment, and facilitation of access to medication through service integration.