One hundred patients with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) of more than 6 months' duration were interviewed to assess their knowledge of the disease and its treatment. Only 46 patients said they had received information about their RA from health-care professionals. The most popular source of information used by the patients was television (82%). Patients' beliefs of factors which cause RA and cause flare-ups of disease were numerous. These included stress, exercise, infections and climatic factors. Patients' knowledge of disease symptoms was incomplete. Fifty-eight patients had tried non-prescribed remedies for RA but 70% found these ineffective. Patients wanted more information about their disease and its management. Specifically considering drug treatment, 72 patients said information should be provided in leaflets.

This study of elderly patients discharged from hospital looked at the effect of a self medication (SM) scheme on compliance with drug regimens. Patients from four medical wards for the elderly were recruited. Those from two wards participated in a SM scheme (18 subjects). Patients from the other wards (15) acted as controls. Two weeks after discharge, compliance was significantly better in the SM group. Only 6 per cent (one patient) made serious errors compared with 47 per cent of controls. After three months only 11 patients in each group remained in the study but compliance in SM patients was still better than in controls. The study highlighted the extremely poor ability of the elderly to manage their medicines at home. This was illustrated by problems cited by patients in the non‐self medicating group.

No abstract