• Romana Santos Gama, PassosLuiz Carlos SantanaLCShttp://orcid.org/0000-0001-7608-1482Universidade Federal da Bahia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Medicina e Saúde -Salvador (BA), Brazil., Welma Wildes Amorim, Renato Morais Souza, Hévila Maciel Queiroga, Jéssica Caline Macedo, Larissa Gusmão de Oliveira Nunes, and Marcio Galvão Oliveira.
• Universidade Federal da Bahia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Medicina e Saúde -Salvador (BA), Brazil.
• Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2021 Nov 1; 67 (11): 1586-1594.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess older people's knowledge of the purpose of drugs prescribed at medical appointments in primary care units and the possible factors related to their level of knowledge about their medications.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study conducted in 22 basic health units in Brazil. Patients aged ≥60 years were included in this study (n=674). Knowledge of prescribed medications was assessed by comparing the responses to the questionnaire and the medication and prescription information. Multivariate analyses were conducted using the Poisson regression with robust variance.ResultsThe mean age of the sample was 70.1 (standard deviation: ±7.1) years. Among 674 patients, 272 (40.4%) did not know the indication of at least 1 of their prescribed drugs; among them, 78 (11.6%) did not know the indication of any of their prescribed drugs. In the final multivariate analysis, polypharmacy, illiteracy, and cognitive impairment were found to be associated with misunderstanding the purpose of at least one prescribed drug. Moreover, illiteracy and cognitive impairment were associated with a greater misunderstanding of the purpose of all prescribed drugs.ConclusionsIn the studied sample, patients demonstrated a high rate of misunderstanding of the purpose of prescribed drugs. Therefore, it is necessary for health services and professionals to implement strategies that increase the quality of the guidance and instructions given to older people in order to promote adherence to treatment.

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