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


METHODS
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.


RESULTS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Mitchell
J
J
Center on Aging, School of Medicine,  East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858-4354, USA. mitchellj@mail.ecu.edu
Mathews
H F
HF
Hunt
L M
LM
Cobb
K H
KH
Watson
R W
RW
D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009657:North Carolina; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012646:Self Administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016312:Treatment Refusal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044465:White People