Medication adherence and knowledge of older patients with and without multidose drug dispensing.

Objective: we compared the self-reported medication adherence and knowledge of older patients receiving their drugs via multidose drug dispensing (MDD users) with patients receiving manually dispensed drugs (non-MDD users).
Methods: MDD users (≥ 65 years, ≥ 5 oral chronic drugs) were randomly selected from eight Dutch community pharmacies. Non-MDD users (≥ 5 oral chronic drugs) were matched on age and gender. Medication adherence was assessed by using the Medication Adherence Reporting Scale (MARS) and medication knowledge by asking the indication of drugs. Cognitive function was measured with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) for a sub selection of patients.
Results: the percentage of patients being adherent to all drugs was higher for MDD users (n = 119, 81%) compared with non-MDD users (n = 96, 58%, P < 0.001).The percentage of patients with adequate knowledge was lower for MDD users (40%) compared with non-MDD users (79%, P < 0.001). The differences in adherence were independent of knowledge and MMSE scores.
Conclusion: this study shows that older patients receiving their drugs via MDD reported a higher medication adherence compared with patients receiving manually dispensed drugs, despite a lower knowledge and lower cognitive function among patients receiving MDD.