Publication

Abstract : The objective of this study was to identify the various causes of non compliance among geriatric patients and to study the Clinical Pharmacists' initiated interventions in improving compliance. The patients satisfying the inclusion criteria were enrolled from the study centre. All the In patients and Out patients under the department of Geriatrics who are willing to participate, not on any psychiatric medicines and other alternative systems of medicines have been included in the study. All the pertinent data has been obtained from direct patient interview, reviewing case files and assessing electronic medical records. The non-compliance were analysed by Morisky scale. Out of the 267 patients, 27 patients were found to be non compliant to medication. The various causes were patient not taking the drug due to lack of knowledge of medication (32%) and patient forgetting to take the medicine (28%), unaware of the right instructions to use inhalers, insulin (16%), adverse drug reactions (15%), polypharmacy (14.2%). The major intervention we did was patient counseling (66.14%). By our intervention, we were able to fully solve 64.5% of non compliance. Non Compliance or Poor compliance to prescribed medications is a common problem which can have a major impact on the success of routine patient care especially among elderly patient. Clinical pharmacist have a vital role to play in providing patient (medication) counseling that can minimize the issues of non compliance to a great extent. There by they play a vital role in improving quality of life of the patients.