The practise and knowledge of medicine usage in older people

Determining the practise and knowledge of medicine usage in older people is the aim of this descriptive studyThe aim of this descriptive research was to determine drug use and information in the older peopleThe study sample was comprised of 300 people chosen from 960 old people over 65 years of age living in Eryaman Health Centre No. 3 neighbourhood by random sampling. Data which had been gathered with questionnaire survey were analyzed with the SPSS 11.5 and frequency, percent and chi-square testsIn this study, 50.7% of the persons are in the age group of 65-69, 61.0% are female and 76.3% of the survey group graduated from a primary school or higher schools. Additionally 44.1% of persons have more than one chronic disease and 84.3% of them use more than one medicine. The most common seen disease in the persons who participated in this research is hypertension and the most common used medicine group is cardiovascular system medicineAccording to the older persons expressions, 17.0% of the persons abandoned using doctor?s prescription and 16.7% of them have been using over-the-counter medicine. As a result of the this study, adverse medicine reactions occurred in the 19.3% of persons and most common seen adverse medicine reactions are gastric problems (36.2Replies to the questions concerning medicine knowledge shows that 51.3% of the persons know the right answers. This research presents that education level of the older persons is found to be effective in the usage of over-the-counter medicines and medicine knowledge (p<0.0588.7% of the survey group stated that physicians informed them about the usage of the medicines and 2.2% of them were informed by nursesTaking into consideration, these findings suggest that the nurses should be aware of the education level, habits of the older persons who use medicines, and they should observe them closely and inform and support them with the appropriate usage of the medicinesKey Words: Old age, medicine use, medicine knowledge, nurse