Department of Pharmacy, pharmacology and postgraduate medicine, School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK.
Department of Pharmacy, pharmacology and postgraduate medicine, School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK.
Int J Pharm. 2016 Oct 30;512(2):374-381. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2016.03.007. Epub 2016 Mar 9.
Older patients (aged 65years and over) are the major consumers of medicines and many barriers affect their ability in taking medicines orally, especially swallowing difficulties. Moreover, the characteristics of differing medicine formulations might have an impact on their acceptability in older patients. The aims of this study were to validate a Medicines Acceptability Questionnaire (MAQ) and to assess acceptability of oral solid medicines in older ambulatory patients with and without dysphagia. One hundred and fifty six older patients attending community pharmacies were recruited and attended face to face interviews. Two questionnaires were administered during the interviews, the validated Sydney Swallow Questionnaire (SSQ) assessing oral and pharyngeal swallowing function and the newly developed MAQ evaluating patient acceptability of oral solid medicines. Seventeen (11%) participants displayed symptoms compatible with swallowing difficulties identified by the SSQ. Participants with swallowing difficulties were considered themselves more likely to have problems in swallowing tablets and capsules of large sizes (11mm and 13mm tablets and size #00 capsules) compared to participants without dysphagia. Dispersible/effervescent tablets and orally disintegrating tablets were considered to be the most acceptable in this cohort, followed by mini-tablets. Chewable tablets and granules were the least favoured. Consistently higher acceptability scores were seen in the dysphagic population than in the non-dysphagic population for all of the dosage forms that were easier to swallow than tablets and capsules. The development of these formulations will assist in medication taking in older patients with dysphagia and potentially their adherence to drug treatments.
老年人（年龄在 65 岁及以上）是药品的主要消费者，许多因素会影响他们口服药物的能力，尤其是吞咽困难。此外，不同剂型的药物特性可能会影响老年人对其的接受程度。本研究旨在验证一种药物可接受性问卷（MAQ），并评估吞咽困难和无吞咽困难的门诊老年患者对口服固体制剂的接受程度。招募了 156 名在社区药房就诊的老年患者，并进行了面对面的访谈。在访谈过程中，患者接受了两种问卷的评估，验证后的悉尼吞咽问卷（SSQ）评估口腔和咽部吞咽功能，新开发的 MAQ 评估患者对口服固体制剂的可接受性。17 名（11%）参与者的 SSQ 结果显示存在吞咽困难的症状。与无吞咽困难的参与者相比，有吞咽困难症状的参与者认为自己在吞咽大尺寸片剂和胶囊（11mm 和 13mm 片剂和 0 号胶囊）时更有可能出现问题。在该队列中，分散片/泡腾片和口崩片被认为是最容易接受的，其次是迷你片剂。咀嚼片和颗粒剂是最不受欢迎的。在所有比片剂和胶囊更容易吞咽的剂型中，吞咽困难组的可接受性评分均明显高于无吞咽困难组。这些剂型的开发将有助于吞咽困难的老年患者服药，并且可能提高他们对药物治疗的依从性。
