Prevalence of medication adherence and its associated factors among community-dwelling Chinese older adults in Hong Kong

AIM: The aim of present study was to describe the prevalence of medication adherence, and to examine its risk factors among Chinese community-dwelling older adults with chronic diseases. METHODS: Secondary analysis was carried out on the data collected from 3167 Hong Kong adults aged ≥60 years who lived in their private home, had at least one type of chronic disease and had completed a screening instrument for long-term care services for the first time in 2006. The outcome variable was the self- or caregiver-reported medication adherence. RESULTS: Among the respondents, 90.8% reported having good medication adherence in the past 7 days. More dependence on activities of daily living (P < 0.001), stroke (P = 0.003) or diabetes (P = 0.036), had medication review by physicians (P < 0.001) and received more informal care support (P = 0.005) were positively associated with medication adherence, whereas more cognitive impaired (P = 0.008), more negative mood (P = 0.071) and perceived poor health (P < 0.001) were negatively associated with medication adherence. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of self-reported medication adherence was high in Hong Kong Chinese community-dwelling older adults. A number of modifiable factors associated with medication adherence were identified, which provides specific targets for interventions.