Can elderly people take their medicine?

Force requirements in topical medicine use—the squeezability factor

“…In addition they found that increasing age, female sex and non-dominant hand were associated with lower strengths. Pinch grip, the force generated when squeezing a dropper bottle, in normal individuals ranges from 17.8 N to 160 N. 5 As expected, the majority of healthy volunteers in that study would produce enough pinch force to use the bottles we have tested. However, the range of finger strengths does fall below some of the force requirements of the bottles we tested.…”

“…A total of 21% of patients never administer their own eye drops and 13% could not expel a drop from a hypromellose bottle. Beckmans study 5 of medicine compliance in the elderly found that cognitive problems were the most common cause of difficulty. In all, 9.4% of patients were unable to read instructions on a medicine container and 14.6% had difficulty opening a plastic flip-top medicine bottle.…”

“…Doing these things at the same time as generating a pinch grip may have an effect on the maximum force generating capacity of the fingers. Although we know that poorer visual acuity is associated with inability to read instructions and open medicines, 5 aiming a medicine bottle toward the eye is a task that requires a greater level of vision.…”

Caregiver preference for rivastigmine patch relative to capsules for treatment of probable Alzheimer's disease

“…Cognitive and physical impairments mean that up to a third of elderly patients living in the community may have difficulties opening medicine bottles, one in ten cannot read the instructions, and nearly half make mistakes when trying to interpret their medication schedules (Beckman et al, 2005a(Beckman et al, , 2005b. Two-thirds of elderly patients have been shown to have a least one limitation of capacity relating to taking their medications, either in terms of opening the bottle, reading the label, or medical competence (Beckman et al, 2005b). Compliance with oral AD therapies has been reported to be low (Roe et al, 2002).…”

Adherence to Cholinesterase Inhibitors in Alzheimer's Disease: A Review

“…However, as people age and the disease progresses, they have increasing physical, visual and cognitive limitations that relate directly to their ability to follow medication regimens; unfortunately, many patients do not realise the extent of these problems, considering themselves able to take their own medicines even when they are unable [43]. Numerous limitations associated with progressive AD, including memory problems, polypharmacy, and physical problems, such as reading labels and swallowing difficulties, are all likely to have an impact on treatment adherence in AD [44,45].…”