AIM: The present study assessed adherence, barriers, belief and awareness towards the use of medications among multi-ethnic community-dwelling older adults in Malaysia. Medication accessibility, expenditure and perceptions towards medicine labeling among older adults were also evaluated.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in the central region of Malaysia from January to August 2015. The older adults enrolled in an ongoing prospective community-based geriatric cohort study and prescribed with medicines were interviewed using a 50-item validated questionnaire.
RESULTS: Of the 79 older adults interviewed, 39.2% had ≥4 prescribed medications. Most obtained their medications free-of-charge from government hospitals (66, 83.5%). Nearly half (35, 44.3%) had trouble reading labels for medicines that they had received. Chinese older adults (P = 0.001) and those with lower monthly household income (P
* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.