| Summary |
The purpose of this thesis was to examine the effects of cognitive function and social resources on medication compliance in the elderly. The study was based on Orem's Self-Care theory. Two hypotheses were proposed Clients with higher cognitive function will demonstrate higher medication compliance than clients with lower cognitive function and clients with higher social resources scores will show higher medication compliance than those with lower social resources scores. The sample included adults over 65 years of age who lived in the community and took two or more prescribed medications daily. Most subjects were obtained through a county home health service. Thirty-five subjects were evaluated. Subjects were visited in the home. Demographic data were collected and a pill count was completed and recorded. The Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), the Trail Making Test Part A & B, and the Social Resources Scale of the Multidimensional Functional Assessment of Older Adults: The Duke Older American Resources and Services Procedure (OARS) were used to measure variables. Two to three weeks later, a return visit to the home was made to determine medication compliance through a pill count. Compliance was calculated by dividing the total number of pills prescribed by the total number of pills taken. Patients were considered to be compliant if they took 80% to 110% of prescribed medications. In combining age, education, MMSE, OARS, and the Trail Making Part A and B and compliance, none of the parametric procedures applied to those correlations using Pearson correlations and chi-square were significant. Findings indicate no relationship between cognitive function, social resources and medication compliance in the study population. |
