Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Background : As Thailand has been entering an aging society, while most of elderly population have underlying chronic disease such as hypertension, diabetic mellitus and chronic kidney disease, which create many problem of medication use among them, Therefore, the awareness of the medication use behavior of elderly patients is a significant particularly among the group of elders with chronic disease who have been serviced.
Objective : Study is to describe the Medication use behavior of elderly patients with chronic disease. The study also examines the perceived severity, benefits of and barriers to taking medication, and also to determine the extent to which these factors explain their behavior.
Methods : The study is a descriptive research conducted with the registered elders at Ban Thungsamiantra health promoting hospital during March 1st to July 31st 2022. The total of sample is 226 patients by data analysis of descriptive statistics. Results : The results revealed that the mean scores of medication taking behaviors were at the good level. The mean scores of perceived severity and perceived benefits of medication taking were at the high level, where as the mean scores of perceived barriers to medication taking was only at the moderate level. The perceived severity, benefits and barriers taken together significantly affected medication taking behaviors, which accounted for 16% of explained variance in medication taking behaviors (R2=0.16, F= 5.518, p<0.01). Perceived barriers was the only significant predictor of medication taking behaviors (=-0.347, t=-3.425, p<0.01).
Conclusions : Findings from this study can be used to develop a care plan that addresses a reduction of barriers, in order to promote proper medication taking behaviors among hypertensive patients and diabetic mellitus, especially for those patients who do not follow the medication regimen and are lost at follow up.
