title: What older complex chronic patients need to know about their everyday medication for safe drug use.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether elderly patients with complex drug regimens have enough information to ensure safe drug use.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was conducted in Spain based on interviews of a random sample of 265 patients aged over 65 and taking at least five drugs for multiple comorbidities. General practitioners reported on diagnoses, drugs, dosage and biochemical laboratory results. Patients were asked about the medications they were taking (with higher scores indicating greater knowledge).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patients took an average of 7.9 medications (SD 3.0). The mean scores were low for precautions (mean 0.3, SD 0.7) and how to properly store medications (mean 2.0, SD 3.0). Scores were significantly higher when physicians regularly provided patients with information (F-test 3.3, p = 0.039) and were not related to gender, years of treatment or health status. Frequent changes in medication adversely affected the scores (p = 0.03). Higher scores were related to a smaller number of medication errors (t-test 2.2, p = 0.032, CI 95% of the difference 0.6 - 1.2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Older complex chronic patients are unaware of the precautions they must adopt to use their medications safely. Patient knowledge does contribute to reducing medication errors. When physicians change prescriptions, modify doses or introduce new medications, more information needs to be provided for safe use of the drugs.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Salud Sant Joan-Alacant, Consellería Sanitat , Alicante , Spain.
authors.forename: José Joaquín
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Mira
authors.forename: Luciana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martínez-Jimeno
authors.forename: Domingo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Orozco-Beltrán
authors.forename: Fuescinla
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Iglesias-Alonso
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lorenzo
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nuño
authors.forename: Pastora
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.forename: Nuria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Toro
authors.forename: Virtudes
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pérez-Jover
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gil-Guillen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D004356:Drug Storage; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D019338:Polypharmacy; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D055553:Prescription Drugs / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D055553:Prescription Drugs
keywords: medication; patient medication knowledge; patient safety; patient–physician communication