[Patients on multiple medication: do they know the right doses? Do they take their medications correctly?].

OBJECTIVES: To find whether patients on multiple medication attending our consultations know the doses of the medication prescribed them. To verify whether these patients say they have taken the prescribed medication correctly.
DESIGN: Descriptive study through questionnaire given the patient or the carer responsible for the medication.
SETTING: Health centre in the periphery of our city. PARTICIPANTS: 212 patients (104 men and 108 women) under 65 years old and 228 (118 men and 110 women) over this age, under treatment with medication taken orally, rectally or transdermically. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Questionnaire in which two questions were asked orally of the patient or carer on each of the medicines prescribed (between 1 and 9): a) how has your doctor said you should take the medicine, and b) how do you really take the medicine? The replies were noted down by the interviewer and then evaluated when the data were checked against the clinical records.
RESULTS: Only 20% of those under 65 who took 8 or 9 medicines remembered correctly the dosages of all of them. 10% of those who took 9 medicines said they took them correctly. 30% of those over 65 who took 8 medicines knew the dosages of all of them. 10% of those who took 9 medicines and 20% of those who took 8 said they took them all correctly.
CONCLUSIONS: In the case of patients on multiple medication, the doctor must try to establish simple dosage patterns (once or twice a day) of the most efficient efficacious medication.