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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Medication management capacity in highly functioning community living older adults
— detection of early deficits | | Author(s) | Helen K Edelberg, Elizabeth Shallenberger, Jeanne Y Wei |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 47, no 5, May 1999 |
| Pages | pp 592-596 |
| Keywords | Drugs ; Over 70s ; Out-patients ; Living in the community ; Cognitive processes ; Cognitive impairment ; Evaluation ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | The Drug Regimen Unassisted Grading Scale (DRUGS) was developed and employed in testing the hypothesis that the inability to take medication independently may correlate with the presence of cognitive impairment. A study population of 59 participants including outpatients aged 70 and over completed the study. The DRUGS tool score was inversely related to age. Compared with independent living, residence in assisted living was associated with lower scores. The DRUGS tool scores was associated with self-reported medication management capacity (94.8% able vs 86.2% unable). There is an association between performance on the DRUGS tool and level of cognitive function. DRUGS represents a unique individualised, yet standardised, assessment of the ability to function independently for ambulatory older people. It may be useful for identifying those highly functioning older people, at an early phase of cognitive decline, in whom targeted intervention would likely to be most effective and efficient. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990825307 A |
| Classmark | LLD: BBK: LFB: K4: DA: E4: 4C: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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