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. 2022 Dec;41(12):2566-2573.
doi: 10.1177/07334648221120246. Epub 2022 Aug 11.

The Roles of Busyness and Daily Routine in Medication Management Behaviors Among Older Adults

Tara C Klinedinst  1   2 , Lauren Opsasnick  3 , Julia Yoshino Benavente  3 , Michael Wolf  3 , Rachel O'Conor  3
Affiliations

The Roles of Busyness and Daily Routine in Medication Management Behaviors Among Older Adults

Tara C Klinedinst et al. J Appl Gerontol. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Busyness (the density of activities) and daily routine (patterns of organizing time) are two understudied factors that likely impact medication-taking behaviors. We examined the association between busyness and routine with medication adherence (MA) in 405 older adults with adequate cognition using multivariable models. The final model included an interaction term between daily routine and busyness. MA scores (measured by the ASK-12, higher scores mean more barriers to adherence) were higher for individuals reporting low and moderate levels of daily routine versus those with high daily routine. MA scores were higher for individuals reporting moderate and high busyness versus those reporting low busyness. The busyness/routine interaction term was significant for MA; among highly busy individuals, those with high daily routine had lower MA scores than those with low routine. A daily routine may be a modifiable factor for improving MA among older adults, particularly among those with busy lives.

Keywords: activities of daily living; applied cognition; chronic illness; health behaviors; medication.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Statement: Dr. Wolf reports grants from Merck, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the NIH, and Eli Lilly outside the submitted work; and personal fees from Sanofi, Pfizer, and Luto outside the submitted work. All other authors report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Medication adherence scores by busyness and routine status Note. Moderate Busy group was removed for ease of interpretation. See Supplementary Figure 1 for all groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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