Self-administration medication errors at home and its predictors among illiterate and low-literate community-dwelling older adults with polypharmacy: A negative binomial hierarchical regression

This study aimed to identify the extent of medication self-administration errors (MSEs) and the contributing factors among illiterate and low-literate community-dwelling older adults with polypharmacy. MethodThe present cross-sectional study was conducted among people aged 60 and above. The data were collected using the sociodemographic, clinical, and Belief about Medicines Questionnaires (BMQ). To determine the extent of MSE, a medication error checklist was used. The negative binomial hierarchical regression model in the five blocks was performed. ResultsThe final sample size was 276 people. The frequency of MSEs in the last 6 months was 69.2%. Sixteen percent of participants had made four or more mistakes. The most common MSEs were forgetting, improper taking of medications with food, improper timing, incorrect dosage (lower dose), and forgetting the doctor ’s instructions. Near 18% of participants reported adverse events following their mistakes. The significant predictors of MSEs were being completely illiterate (p = 0.021), the higher number of doctor visits per year (p = 0.014), irregularly seeing doctors (p
Source: PLoS One - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research