Medication-related knowledge

Analysis of the patients responses per parameter showed the following: 20% of the patients knew the names of all the drug they were taking, 44% knew all the posology regimens, 48.6% knew the daily dose frequency of all of their medications, and around 53% knew all the indications (Figure 1). Ensuing the classification already detailed, 64% of the patients were identified to have sub-optimal medicine knowledge, while 36% showed optimal medicine knowledge.Factors influencing knowledge about medication among elderly subjectsIn the univariate analysis, factors that were significantly correlated with poor knowledge about medication were as follows: age, level of education, financial status, number of CD, diabetes, number of prescribed medications, quality of medical consultation, trust in the doctor, quality of care services, as well as, availability of drugs. The mean age was significantly lower in the optimal medicine knowledge group (66.2±4.1) than in the sub-optimal medicine knowledge group (72,5±6,7) (Table 1). The education level revealed a statistically significant difference between both groups (p=0.004). Illiterate education constituted a higher percentage (60%) of the sub-optimal medicine knowledge group than other education levels (Table 1). Moreover, the comparison of financier statement showed a significant difference between optimal and sub-optimal medicine knowledge groups (p=0.007). However, a low financier statement constituted approximately half of the sub-optimal medicine knowledge group (44.5%), whereas patients with middle financier statement constituted 88% of the optimal medicine knowledge group (Table 1). Medication parameters such as the number of CD and prescribed drugs were higher in sub-optimal medicine knowledge group compared to the optimal medicine knowledge group (p < 0.05) (Table 2). Also, the indications for diabetes and their drugs have poorly known in our population. Participants with sub-optimal medicine knowledge were received a higher number of Metformin tablets daily or a higher dosing frequency than participants with optimal medicine knowledge (p=0.008) (Table 2).Furthermore, participants with low knowledge have poorer trust for doctors. They were less likely to be satisfied with a doctor counseling and quality of care services (Table 3).The lack of availability of drug essential only concerns the group of patients with sub-optimal medicine knowledge (Table 3).However, multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to find the factors correlated with levels of medication knowledge (Table 4). The lower levels of medication knowledge were associated with old age (CR=1.3; 95% CI: 1.1-1.5; p=0.009) and the number of prescribed drugs (CR=2.1; 95% CI: 1.1-4.1; p=0.024). In contrast, participants with the following characteristics were more likely to have the best medication knowledge: a higher level of education (CR= 0.2; 95% CI: 0.05-0.6; p=0.007) and having better satisfaction with the quality of the consultation (CR=8.3; 95% CI: 1.4-48; p=0.018).