Understanding the Factors Influencing Older Adults’ Decision-Making about Their Use of Over-The-Counter Medications—A Scenario-Based Approach

Abstract

The potential risks of over-the-counter (OTC) medications are often aggravated in vulnerable populations, such as older adults. The elevated patterns of older-adult OTC medication use do not necessarily translate into a greater understanding of these medications or their safety implications. The objective of this study was to assess how older adults’ knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes inform their decision-making regarding OTC use. Situational interviews were conducted in three community pharmacies with 87 older-adult participants to capture how they intended to use an OTC medication. The interviews were transcribed and qualitatively analyzed, generating seven key themes: (1) medication use concerns; (2) following label instructions; (3) wait time until medication effect; (4) responses to medication not working; (5) decision to stop medication; (6) sources of information; and (7) safety implications. This study shows substantial variations in older-adult OTC medication use while providing insight on factors that influence older adults’ appropriate OTC medication use and, in some cases, the potential for harmful effects.

Consumption of over-the-Counter Drugs: Prevalence and Type of Drugs

“…These results are similar to those obtained by other researchers, although in our study, differences with regard to gender were not obtained [18]. In contrast to a previous study conducted by Shah et al, subjects aged >65 years-old were not the major consumers of OTC drugs in Spain [19]. This difference may be due to this population having greater contact with prescribers of medicines and the fact that the medicines prescribed are free of charge.…”

Knowledge, attitude, behaviour, and influencing factors of home-based medication safety among community-dwelling older adults with chronic diseases: a cross-sectional study

“…Xu et al [ 10 ] also reveal that older adults primarily acquire their medication knowledge from medical staff (308 doctors, 77.0%; 107 nurses, 26.8%) and healthcare programmes on television (220 people, 55.0%). When older adults have questions about their medication, more than 60% will consult medical personnel [ 36 ]. Therefore, the medical community should make greater efforts to improve older adults’ awareness of medication safety at home.…”

A Field Study: Partnering with Pharmacists to Develop a Tool for Evaluating Misuse of Over-the-Counter Medications among Older Adults in the Community Pharmacy

“…The Senior Section TM , is located proximal to the prescription department and contains OTC medications to manage pain, sleep, and cough / cold / allergy symptoms. The intervention is described in detail elsewhere, including how the intervention was developed using participatory design (Reddy et al, 2019), and how we measured the ways that this intervention impacted OA's selection of OTC medications while in the community pharmacy (Gilson et al, 2021;Shah et al, 2020). Notably, one approach we took to test our community pharmacy intervention was to compare rates of OTC medication misuse among OA participants pre-/post-intervention.…”