Elderly Health Journal

Introduction: Physiological changes occurring with aging increase prevalence of chronic diseases in elderly individuals. This situation brings about difficulties in medication use in elderly individuals. This study was conducted to determine knowledge, attitude and behaviours regarding medication use in elderly with chronic diseases.
Methods: Participants of this descriptive and cross-sectional study were 124 elderly individuals who were more than 65 years old, applied to Family Health Center in Yalova, Turkey between the dates of January- June 2018. Data were collected with data collection form including individual and disease information, medication use and knowledge, attitude and behaviours regarding medication use. 
Results: Almost half of the elderly individuals (44.4%) expressed that they used medicine three times a day and 40.3% of them expressed that they used medicine six times and more a day. When the information about medication use of elderly individuals is evaluated, 75% of them stated that they did not receive any information on drug use and 82.3% of them did not know the side effects of drugs. When the attitudes of the individuals were evaluated, it was found that 6.5% of them liked to use medication, 67.7% of them had no dose, and 46% of them had stopped using medication without asking the physician. When the behaviors of elderly individuals were evaluated, 19.4% of them didn’t use their medicines regularly, 46% of them discontinued their medication without asking their doctors, 82.3% of them didn’t know side effect of the medicines, 81.5% of them used medicines without doctor’s advice, 79.8% of them didn’t read medicine usage instructions before using medicines, 12.9% of them kept their medicines in their bags and 55.6% of them kept them in a cabinet.
Conclusion: Significant problems such as lack of information about drug use in elderly individuals and self-medication use have been identified.

Introduction: Elderly population is increasing in Pakistan. Majority of people aged 50 – 64, suffer from two or more chronic conditions. Care of elderly people is sub-optimal. Healthcare system has limited resources to provide healthcare support to elderly people. Thus, there is need to empower the elderly to self-manage their health conditions. Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) is the most widely accepted self-management patient education program. It is designed to help people to gain confidence and skills to better manage their chronic conditions. Evidence of the effectiveness of CDSMP specifically for elderly people aged 60 years and above is lacking. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review was to determine the effects of the program among chronically ill elderly people.
Methods: MEDLINED, CINHAL, EMBASE, PSYINFO, JBI and ASSIA were searched between April and May, 2020 for studies that tested the effects of generic CDSMP. A total of 750 articles were identified, of which 5 were included in the core review (four randomized controlled trials and one quasi-experimental).
Results: Eligible 5 studies yielded 2971 participants (mean aged 60.4 to 76.0 years). Elder people who participated in CDSMP improved their self-efficacy to manage disease in general and to manage symptoms. The effects on health status were mixed. Self-rated health and health distress showed significant improvement. Some health behaviours showed improvement, particularly exercise component showed significant improvement. For health services utilization, there was no improvement.
Conclusion: The result of this review suggests that CDSMP is beneficial for elderly people who attended the structured CDSMP either through a trained care provider or layman. Experimental studies in low and middle income countries, with large sample sizes are suggested to further understand the impact of CDSMP.