Browsing by Subject "puolitus"

There are many challenges in use of dosage forms in medication of elderly people. Especially swallowing of solid dosage forms can be difficult. Dosage forms are often altered to enhance drug intake. Medication adherence is a major contributor to the success of therapy. Adherence is a multidimensional phenomenon which is also affected by properties of medicinal product. Theoretical framework of this thesis is World Health Organization's multidimensional adherence model. Only few studies exist on how properties of dosage forms affect to the success of medical treatment of elderly. The aim of this study was to find out what kind of difficulties related to dosage forms occur in medical treatment of elderly people living in nursing homes. Future goal is to develop dosage forms better suited to elderly and hence improve their medication adherence. This study consisted of interviews and e-survey. This study was carried out in six nursing homes where 322 elderly residents fulfilled the inclusion criteria of the study. Nurses (n = 48) were interviewed to explore their views on difficulties related to dosage forms. Other difficulties in use of dosage forms were also surveyed as well as frequency of tablet crushing. Difficulties in use of dosage forms on the medical treatment of the elderly were gathered in the e-survey. Also, the need to crush tablets and open capsules was surveyed as well as need to split tablets to obtain the dose needed. Difficulties in use of dosage forms are common in medical treatment of elderly people. Majority of the interviewed nurses has encountered these difficulties at least few times a week. The most common problematic dosage form was the tablet. About half of the nurses named the big size of tablets and capsules as the most important difficulty in the use of current oral or peroral dosage forms. Over half of the nurses have crushed or given crushed drug daily. The most common reason for dosage form altering was the big size of the medicinal product. Majority of the nurses has often encountered also other than dosage form related difficulties of which the most common challenges are related to suspiciousness. In e-survey, nurses submitted entries regarding 111 elder people. Most cases were related to splitting of a tablet to obtain the desired drug dose. Tablet crushing was reported for little less than one-fifth of the elderly people. Both the splitting and crushing entries were distributed over multiple different medicinal products. Some other difficulties related to dosage forms were reported for less than one-tenth of the elderly people. Based on this study more appropriate dosage forms should be developed for the medical treatment of elderly people. Oral solutions, orodispersible tablets as well as transdermal patches all have advantages. Pharmaceutical research and development can facilitate medical treatment of elderly people and hence improve their medication adherence by introducing more appropriate dosage forms.