Compliance Indicators in Geriatric Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

Background and objectives: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is rated among the world's most common respiratory pathologies. One of the relevant issues in the contemporary healthcare is the chronic patient's resistance to duly follow the doctor's instruction. The aim of this study is to evaluate treatment compliance among elderly patients with COPD. Methods: The survey involved 95 elderly patients from the Pulmonary Department with exacerbated COPD, whereas specialized Morisky-Green medication adherence test was used, and an interview with a reviewed patient compliance questionnaire. Results: 57.9% of the patients tended to cooperate, while 42.1% of the patient body revealed lower motivation for this. The average patient compliance score was 2.44 ± 0.16. The share of non-compliant men (61.4%) was 2.4 times as high as that of women (25.5%). Differences in compliance were identified depending on the academic background-75.0% of patients with secondary education were compliant; of those with a special vocational degree-63.5%, while only 50% of those with a university degree revealed such an attitude. 73.3% of compliant patients with a university degree had insufficient compliance; of those with special vocational degree-57.6%; as for those with a secondary training degree, this rate was 100%. Treatment adherence among smoking male patients was 1.6 times as low compared with their non-smoking counterparts. Patients most often explained skipping medication with forgetfulness (37.9% of cases), lack of care towards themselves (22.1%), fear of poisoning the body and need to get some "rest" from treatment (14.7%). Conclusion: A significantly higher compliance level was found in women; treatment adherence among non-smoking men exceeded that among men with nicotine dependency. Compliance rates were optimal among people with special vocational training. The willingness to cooperate in groups with various degrees of COPD increased along with the pathology severity.