title: Event-based prospective memory is independently associated with self-report of medication management in older adults.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Identifying potentially modifiable risk factors for medication non-adherence in older adults is important in order to enhance screening and intervention efforts designed to improve medication-taking behavior and health outcomes. The current study sought to determine the unique contribution of prospective memory (PM) (i.e. 'remembering to remember') to successful self-reported medication management in older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-five older adults with current medication prescriptions completed a comprehensive research evaluation of sociodemographic, psychiatric, and neurocognitive functioning, which included the memory for adherence to medication scale (MAMS), prospective and retrospective memory questionnaire (PRMQ), and a performance-based measure of PM that measured both semantically related and semantically unrelated cue-intention (i.e. when-what) pairings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A series of hierarchical regressions controlling for biopsychosocial, other neurocognitive, and medication-related factors showed that elevated complaints on the PM scale of the PRMQ and worse performance on an objective semantically unrelated event-based PM task were independent predictors of poorer medication adherence as measured by the MAMS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PM plays an important role in self-report of successful medication management among older adults. Findings may have implications for screening for older individuals 'at risk' of non-adherence, as well as the development of PM-based interventions to improve medication adherence and, ultimately, long-term health outcomes in older adults.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry , University of California, San Diego , La Jolla , USA.
authors.forename: Steven Paul
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weinborn
authors.forename: Brenton R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gummery
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.forename: Amanda R J
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: Romola S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Bucks
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055118:Medication Adherence; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D057566:Self Report; D012660:Semantics; D014904:Western Australia
keywords: adherence; episodic memory; geropsychology; neuropsychological assessment