Medication-related burden from the perspective of the elderly

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Extensive polypharmacy in the elderly population affects their quality of life and medication compliance. The UK-developed LMQ-3 (Living with Medicine Questionnaire-3) is a valid instrument designed to quantify medicine burden. The aims of this study were to assess the medication-related burden among Bahraini elderly population in relation to their medication consumption patterns and other socio-demographic characteristics and identify specific issues that need to be addressed from the responses. METHODS: The descriptive cross-sectional study was designed to interview 500 Bahrainis over 65 years of age, by using an LMQ-3 questionnaire. Sample size was determined by Slovin’s formula. Data on socio-demographic characteristics and medication consumption patterns were collected, then LMQ-3 and domain scores were compared by patient characteristics using descriptive statistics and statistical tests. RESULTS: We found a wide range of burden among participants in Bahrain, ranging from moderate burden in almost a third of participants, to high burden, over two- thirds of participants. Burden was mainly driven by concerns about medicines, interferences of medicines with daily life and side effects. Higher LMQ-3 scores were associated with those who were technical colleges graduates (7.5, p<0.001), aged ≥75 years (7.7, p<0.001), using ≥9 medicines (7.4, p<0.001), or using medicines four times a day (7.5, p<0.001). Anti-diabetics were the most prescribed medicines for the elderly. IN CONCLUSION: high medication related burden was observed in the majority of patients with the highest seen in certain categories of participants such as the employed and the technical college graduates. Patients with the highest medication related burden should become the main target for practitioners and pharmacists.