Investigation of rational drug use behaviors and knowledge levels of elderly individuals

Objective: This research was conducted for the purpose of examining rational drug use behaviors, rational drug use information levels and factors affecting rational drug use. Materials and Methods: This analytical-cross-sectional study was conducted in the internal medicine and surgery clinics of Aydın Adnan Menderes University Research and Application Hospital between 01 October 2021 and 01 November 2022 with inpatients. 440 elderly individuals were included in the sample of the study with the method of sampling calculation of unknown universe. In the collection of research data, an introductory characteristics form including socio-demographic characteristics, a questionnaire to evaluate rational drug use behaviors of the elderly, and a rational drug use scale to determine rational drug use knowledge levels were used. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U and Kruksal-Wallis tests were used in the analysis of the data, and p<0,05 was considered statistically significant. Results: It was determined that the mean age of the elderly people included in the study was 72,56±5,84 and 51,8% were male. It was determined that 91,6% of the elderly applied to the physician when they had a health problem, 92,7% did not use any medicine other than the medicine prescribed by the physician, and 85,9% kept the remaining medicines. It was found that 98,9% of the elderly did not receive information about the side effects of drugs, 89,3% did not read the prospectus of the drugs, and 79,1% did not check the expiration date of the drugs. It was determined that 72,3% of the elderly used pain medication without consulting a physician. The mean score of the rational drug use scale of the elderly was found to be 32,52±2,93. It was found that illiterate and single people had lower knowledge of rational drug use. It was determined that there was a significant difference between the behavior of keeping expired drugs at home, checking the expiration date of drugs, using antibiotics on their own, and the mean score of the rational drug use scale (p<0,05). 12 Conclusion: As a result of the study, it was concluded that the rational drug use knowledge level of the elderly was low. It was determined that the education level of the elderly, having expired drugs at home, using antibiotics without being examined, and remembering the time and dose of the drugs affected the rational drug use knowledge levels. Keywords: Rational drug use, Drug use behaviors, Elderly