Abstract:
The purposes of this descriptive correlational study were to examine the polypharmacy medication adherence among older persons with chronic illness and the relationship between age, sex, education, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefit, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, social supports and medication adherence. One hundred and fifty people aged 60 and above with chronic illness were recruited from outpatient department at Police General Hospital and Somdech Pra Pinklao Hospital, selected by a multistage sampling technique. Descriptive statistics, Pearsons Product Moment Correlation, Chi-Square and t-test were used to analyze data. The major findings were as follow: 1. The mean score of medication adherence was at a high level (x = 29.32, SD = 3.07) 2. There were statistically positive relationships between perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefit, self-efficacy, social supports and polypharmacy medication adherence among older persons with chronic illness at the level 0.05 (r= 0.273, 0.258, .0344, 0.530 and 0.597) respectively. There were statistically negative relationships between perceived barriers and polypharmacy medication adherence among older persons with chronic illness at the level 0.05 (r= -0.445) 3. There were no significant relationships between age, sex, education and medication polypharmacy adherence in among older persons with chronic illness. (r= 0.004 and Chi-Square = 2.277, 0.256) respectively. Whereas, there was no significant relationships between gender and polypharmacy medication adherence. (t= 1.33)