| dc.description.abstract | Memory impairment is a major complaint
among older adults. With aging, older people
have to take more medications as they faced
more medical conditions. Memory impairment
can affect treatment adherence. Adherence to
treatment is important to patients as well as to
reduce the cost of health care system. This study
was conducted in university medical clinics in
Teaching Hospital Karapitiya (THK). Subjects
were older adult patients (age over 60 years) who
got treatments from university medical clinics in
THK. Using descriptive cross sectional survey
and interviewer administered questionnaire, data
were collected from 300 patients, were analyzed
using descriptive statistics including mean and
standard deviations (SD) and presented by
percentages, charts and tables. Pearson Chi Square
test was used to test association between memory
impairment and treatment adherence and also to
test associations between memory components
and treatment adherence. A total of 300 patients,
218 (72.7%) had no memory impairment and
82 (27.3%) had memory impairment. 14.6% of
impaired memory patients had unsatisfactory
level of treatment adherence and 73.2% of
impaired memory patients had satisfactory level
of treatment adherence. Results showed that there
was no significant relationship between memory
impairment and treatment adherence. Although
the study has 27.3% of impaired memory patients,
results suggest that there was no relationship
between memory impairment and treatment
adherence among older adults. Considering the
impaired memory group their family support,
monthly income and living situation were in good
condition. | en_US |
