Self-perception of illness-medication of the elderly in Los Guido Desamparados San José Costa Rica

Abstract

Elderly people can build therapeutic adherence by coexisting with a set of biological, psychological, social, cultural, and other factors. The objective of this work was to describe the illness-medication self-perception of the elderly in Los Guido Desamparados-San José, Costa Rica. It is a qualitative, retrospective, and cross-sectional study that is part of the macro project of the Health Research Institute of the University of Costa Rica “Situation of the elderly in Los Guido de Desamparados” approved by the Bioethics Committee. The homes of elderly people who voluntarily participated were visited and data of interest was provided: sex, age, education, whether they live alone or with someone else. A disease-medication self-perception scale was constructed at a low level (poor agreement), medium level (medium agreement) and high level (there is a majority in agreement). The data were treated confidentially and anonymously and are presented using basic descriptive statistics. 275 elderly people participated, 187 (68%) women and 88 (32%) men, 244 (89%) on medication, 14 (5%) did not provide information and 17 (6%) did not use it. The distribution by age group in years considers 43 (15%) from 65 to 69 years old, 139 (51%) from 70 to 79 years old, 69 (25%) from 80 to 89 years old and 24 (9%) from 90 years old or more; by education 46/17% none, 124/45% incomplete primary education, 73/26% complete primary education, 21/8% incomplete secondary education, 7/3% complete secondary education, 2/1% incomplete higher education and 2/ 1% others (technical); 244/89% live with someone and 31/11% live alone. Of the 244 people with self-perceived illness-medication; 59/24% are at the low level, 38/16% at the medium level and 147/60% at the high level. There are elderly people with factors that favor therapeutic adherence and others that do not; therefore, the individualized approach would allow the implementation of educational strategies that generate adequate results with the rational use of medications.

Keywords: adherence, medication, education.