What do older patients know about their medication? A cross-sectional, interview-based pilot study

PURPOSE: This study sought to analyze the medication knowledge and awareness of medication adjustment options during intercurrent illness (sick day rules) of patients ≥ 70 years treated at a hospital for geriatric medicine in northern Germany. METHODS: The study was designed as a cross-sectional, interview-based pilot study, was approved by the Ethics Committee of Hannover Medical School (No. 10274_BO_K_2022; date of approval: 11 March 2022), and enrolled a convenience sample of 100 patients between May and December 2022. RESULTS: The median of the average medication knowledge score in the study population (median age 82 years (IQR 75–87); 71% female) was 5 on a scale from 0 to 6 (IQR 3.8–5.6). Women achieved higher average medication knowledge scores than men (median 5.1 (IQR 4–5.6) vs. median 4.3 (IQR 3.6–5.1); p = 0.012), and patients < 80 years achieved higher average medication knowledge scores than patients ≥ 80 years (median 5.4 (IQR 4.9–5.7) vs. median 4.3 (IQR 3.2–5.3); p < 0.001). Sick day rules were known for only 1.1% of drugs for which sick day rules were applicable. Fifty-two percent of the patients reported that their general practitioner contributed most to their medication knowledge, and 66% considered their daily number of drugs to take adequate. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that medication knowledge of older patients was overall satisfying. Awareness of sick day rules, however, was poor. Future studies should evaluate the clinical benefits of sick day rules and ways of better communicating sick day rules to patients. In this regard, general practitioners may play a decisive role. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00228-023-03548-7.