Study On The Level Of Elders' Medication Management And Their Functioning And Well-being In Communities Of Tianjin City

ObjectivesTo improve the level of elders' medication management in communities of Tianjin City,this study explored the effective measures and contents and analyzed the influence of improving elders' medication management on their functioning and well-being by the general analysis of the level of medication management and the functioning and well-being of elders.MethodsA descriptive and correlation design and a quasi-experiment design were used in this study.Using convenient sampling method,372 cases in communities of Tianjin City were selected to take part in this study.All cases completed the level of medication management questionnaire and the Chinese version of Short-Form Health Survey(SF-36).All the data collected were evaluated.The level of medication management and functioning and well-being were described,together with their influenced factors.The correlation between medication management and functioning and well-being was analyzed.In the part of quasi-experiment,all cases were selected into intervention group and control group by their regional community.Elders in the intervention group were given "the elderly medication management handbook" and health education about medication management which hold once a month. Questionaires were collected again 3 months later.Paired t-test was used in camparing the level of medication management and functioning and well-being before and after three months to evaluate the influence of medication management intervention on the functioning and well-being.Results(1)The level of medication management of elders in communities was at low level.Among these factors,"the knowledge of medication "and "the compliance of medication"showed low level and medium level.(2)Multiple stepwise regression ananlysis showed that education,current or pre-retirement employment,payment of medical expenses,type of disease,whether the disease need long-term medication and help or not were the independent impact factors.(3)The scores of the dimensions Physical Functioning,Role-Physical,Body Pain,General Health,Role-Emotional are lower than the general population(P＜0.01).Monthly income,type of disease,whether the disease need long-term medication and help or not,type of medicine were the independent impact factors on the physical function scale;age,current or pre-retirement employment,monthly income,type of medicine,times of medication were the independent impact factors on the mental function scale.(4)Positive associations were found between the knowledge of medication and the functioning and well-being(r=0.207,0.233 respectively,P＜0.01).(5)Scores of medication management and knowledge of medication in intervention group increased significantly after the intervention(P＜0.01).Scale of physical function and mental function in intervention group increased significantly after the intervention(P＜0.01). There also were increases in the scores of the dimensions of Physical Functioning, Role-Physical,General Health,Social Functioning by intervention(P＜0.05).(6)In control group,no significant change was found in the scores of medication management,knowledge of medication and compliance of medication(P＞0.05),as well as the scores on the scale of physical function and mental function(P＞0.05). While there was significant increase in the score on Body Pain(P＜0.01).ConclusionsThere were associations between some aspects of medication management and functioning and well-being among elders in communities.Functioning and well-being of elders in communities can be maintained or improved by intervention of medication management.