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Correlation between the use of ‘over-the-counter’ medicines and adherence in elderly patients on multiple medications

Overview of attention for article published in International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, October 2013
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Title
Correlation between the use of ‘over-the-counter’ medicines and adherence in elderly patients on multiple medications
Published in
International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, October 2013
DOI 10.1007/s11096-013-9863-z
Pubmed ID
Authors

Charlotte Olesen, Philipp Harbig, Ishay Barat, Else Marie Damsgaard

Abstract

Background Medication adherence is a multifaceted issue that is influenced by various factors. One factor may be the concurrent use of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines. The use of OTC medicine has been reported as common amongst elderly patients. Objective To determine if a correlation exists between the use of OTC medicines and adherence to prescribed medications in elderly patients. Setting Non-institutionalised elderly patients in Denmark. Methods Elderly unassisted patients aged ≥65 prescribed five or more prescription drugs were included in the study. Information on the use of concurrent OTC medications (herbal medicines, dietary supplements, or non-prescribed drugs) was elicited during home visit interviews. Prescription drug adherence was determined by pill counts. A patient was categorised as non-adherent if the mean adherence rate for all drugs consumed was <80 %. Different sensitivity analyses were made where adherence was defined different. Main outcome measure Medication adherence based on pill-count. Results A total of 253 participants included 72 % who used OTC medicines and 11 % who did not adhere to their prescriptions. Users of OTC medicines, however, were significantly more likely to be adherent than were non-users (odds ratio 0.41; 95 % confidence interval 0.18-0.91). Sensitivity analyses where adherence was defined different show no relationship between adherence and use of OTC medicine. Furthermore, separate analyses of herbal medicines, dietary supplements, or non-prescribed drugs did not correlate with adherence to prescriptions. Conclusion Amongst elderly patients on multiple medications a positive relationship was found between the overall use of OTC medicines and adherence to prescription drugs, in contrast to none when adherence were defined different or herbal medicines, dietary supplements, or non-prescribed drugs were analysed separately.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 40 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 40 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 6 15%
Student > Master 6 15%
Student > Bachelor 5 13%
Student > Doctoral Student 3 8%
Other 3 8%
Other 10 25%
Unknown 7 18%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 14 35%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 7 18%
Social Sciences 4 10%
Nursing and Health Professions 3 8%
Psychology 1 3%
Other 3 8%
Unknown 8 20%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 November 2013.
All research outputs
#18,353,475
of 22,729,647 outputs
Outputs from International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
#871
of 1,076 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#157,095
of 210,865 outputs
Outputs of similar age from International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
#18
of 20 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,729,647 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 11th percentile – i.e., 11% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
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