Education of independent elderly in the responsible use of prescription medications.

A pilot study to test the effectiveness of medication instruction was carried out using 61 voluntary participants age 65 and older. They were interviewed regarding their medication taking, and instruction was individualized using one of four teaching modes: oral; written; oral and written; and oral and written combined with memory aids. Postinstruction interviews revealed no significant difference in compliance among all groups. The preinstruction mean compliance score of all subjects was 98.8 percent. Although compliance, judged specifically on the basis of the prescription label instructions, was extremely high both before and after instruction, drug-taking behavior and knowledge did change. The preinstruction compliance score does not necessarily reflect safe or desirable drug-taking behavior. There was no specific information given to clients with their prescriptions and prescription medications, indicating, for drug-therapy decision makers, a much broader problem than non-compliance.