The association of medication regimen complexity with health related quality of life in elderly people

Abstract

Introduction: Due to various medical problems that lead to long-term treatment with multiple drugs in the elderly, this group is a vulnerable population that is exposed to high medication regimen complexity, potentially inappropriate drug use, and low quality of life. Therefore, due to the significant increase in the number of elderly people in the world and also in our country, it is necessary to address the issue of elderly health and help improve the quality of life of the elderly. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between medication regimen complexity and quality of life related to health in the elderly. Materials and Methods: After calculating the sample size and going to Asadabadi Hospital polyclinic, the elderly were selected by convenience sampling. In addition to providing periodic care by the physician while obtaining consent to participate in the study, medication regimen complexity index and quality of life questionnaire were completed. Finally, the data were analyzed and reported using SPSS software version 26 and Microsoft office Excel 2019. Results: In this study, 110 elderly people were examined, of which 53 participants were female and 57 participants were male. There was a significant relationship between medication regimen complexity index and quality of life based on the score of OPQOL-35 questionnaire. For each unit of increasing the medication regimen complexity index, the quality of life decreased by 0.48 units. Also, for each year of aging, the quality of life decreased by 0.28 units. Quality of life was also significantly associated with age and gender. Conclusion: As medication regimen complexity increases, so does the quality of life and activities of daily living index (ADL index) in the elderly. The quality of life in the elderly decreases with age increasing.