Research team: Dr.Sc. Jenny Gentizon,
Older people (≥ 65 years) often deal with more complex medication prescriptions, notably with the concomitant use of multiple medications. During hospitalisation, complexity increases with prescription changes and provision of information delivered by multiple providers. In older adults, medication knowledge deficits and inappropriate medication use are common. However, no formal assessment of patients’ ability is performed in clinical practice.
Medication self-management is a demanding self-care activity requiring high level of cognitive and social skills, also referred to medication literacy. Supporting adequate medication literacy in this population is a priority area. Having a standardised measure of medication literacy is an essential step for clinicians, including nurses, to provide individualized interventions and/or simplification of medication prescribing.
MED-fLAG is the first medication literacy measure tailored to older patients and informal caregivers – when they take responsibility for administering and/or preparing medication. This measure integrates items for prescribed and non-prescribed medications, irrespective of the galenic form, including herbal products and food supplements.
MED-fLAG was designed as a three-dimensional self-reported measure of functional, interactive, and critical medication literacy skills.