Compliance with prescribed drugs: challenges for the elderly population

Abstract

Compliance with prescribed drug regimens is particularly important among the elderly because of their increased vulnerability and greater burden of chronic disorders. This narrative review discusses the factors that are important to compliance, with particular reference to the elderly. These factors are the patient's perceptions of his disease and it's treatment, the physician's perceptions, the manner the physician assumes and the language he uses to communicate with the patient, the patient's living situation, regular medication review, and a continuity of health care provision. Since it is the patient who decides how to use the therapy, his or her involvement in the process of explaining and understanding it is the key to improved compliance.