Low health literacy is common among Medicare recipients and affects their understanding of complex medication regimens. Interventions are needed to improve medication use among older adults, while addressing low health literacy. Community-dwelling older adults in this study were enrolled in an inner-city adult day center. They completed a baseline measure of health literacy, medication self-efficacy, and medication adherence. They were provided with a personalized, illustrated daily medication schedule (PictureRx™). Six weeks later, their medication self-efficacy and adherence were assessed. Among the 20 participants in this pilot project, 70% had high likelihood of limited health literacy and took an average of 13.2 prescription medications. Both self-efficacy and medication adherence increased significantly after provision of the PictureRx cards (p<0.001 and p<0.05, respectively). Al participants rated the PictureRx cards as very helpful in terms of helping them remember the medication’s purpose and dosing. Illustrated daily medication schedules improve medication self-efficacy and adherence among at-risk, community-dwelling older adults.

Low health literacy is common among Medicare recipients and affects their understanding of complex medication regimens. Interventions are needed to improve medication use among older adults, while addressing low health literacy. Community-dwelling older adults in this study were enrolled in an inner-city adult day center. They completed a baseline measure of health literacy, medication self-efficacy, and medication adherence. They were provided with a personalized, illustrated daily medication schedule (PictureRx™). Six weeks later, their medication self-efficacy and adherence were assessed. Among the 20 participants in this pilot project, 70% had high likelihood of limited health literacy and took an average of 13.2 prescription medications. Both self-efficacy and medication adherence increased significantly after provision of the PictureRx cards (p<0.001 and p<0.05, respectively). Al participants rated the PictureRx cards as very helpful in terms of helping them remember the medication's purpose and dosing. Illustrated daily medication schedules improve medication self-efficacy and adherence among at-risk, communitydwelling older adults. BackgroundHealth literary is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2004). Low health literacy adversely affects health and health care utilization, and it contributes to health disparities (IOM, 2004). Limited health literacy is associated with a substantial increase in mortality among communitydwelling elders (Sudore et al., 2006), and is a factor in predicting all-cause mortality and cardiovascular death in older adults (Baker et al., 2007).Low health literacy is prevalent among Medicare enrollees (Gazmararian et. al, 1999) who experience a large burden of chronic illness (