Prevalence of medication adherence and its associated factors among community‐dwelling Chinese older adults in Hong Kong

Abstract

Aim The aim of present study was to describe the prevalence of medication adherence, and to examine its risk factors among Chinese community‐dwelling older adults with chronic diseases. Methods Secondary analysis was carried out on the data collected from 3167 Hong Kong adults aged ≥60 years who lived in their private home, had at least one type of chronic disease and had completed a screening instrument for long‐term care services for the first time in 2006. The outcome variable was the self‐ or caregiver‐reported medication adherence. Results Among the respondents, 90.8% reported having good medication adherence in the past 7 days. More dependence on activities of daily living (P < 0.001), stroke (P = 0.003) or diabetes (P = 0.036), had medication review by physicians (P < 0.001) and received more informal care support (P = 0.005) were positively associated with medication adherence, whereas more cognitive impaired (P = 0.008), more negative mood (P = 0.071) and perceived poor health (P < 0.001) were negatively associated with medication adherence. Conclusions The prevalence of self‐reported medication adherence was high in Hong Kong Chinese community‐dwelling older adults. A number of modifiable factors associated with medication adherence were identified, which provides specific targets for interventions.