Determining the Practise and Knowledge of Medicine Usage in a Group of Elderly People in Ankara

AIM: Determining the practise and knowledge of medicine usage in older people is the aim of this descriptive study. METHOD: The study sample was comprised of 300 people chosen from 960 old people over 65 years of age living in Eryaman Health Centre No. 3 neighbourhood by random sampling. Data which had been gathered with questionnaire survey were analyzed with the SPSS 11.5 and frequency, percent and chi-square tests. RESULTS: In this study, 44.1% of persons have more than one chronic disease and 84.3% of them use more than one medicine. The most common seen disease in the persons who participated in this research is hypertension and the most common used medicine group is cardiovascular system medicine. According to the older persons expressions, 17.0% of the persons abandoned using doctor’s prescription and 16.7% of them have been using overthe- counter medicine. As a result of the this study, adverse medicine reactions occurred in the 19.3% of persons. Replies to the questions concerning medicine knowledge shows that 51.3% of the persons know the right answers. 88.7% of the survey group stated that physicians informed them about the usage of the medicines and 2.2% of them were informed by nurses. CONCLUSION: Taking into consideration, these findings suggest that the nurses should be aware of the education level, habits of the older persons who use medicines, and they should observe them closely and inform and support them with the appropriate usage of the medicines. [TAF Prev Med Bull 2010; 9(1): 37-44]