Bulletin

Issue: October 2005

News

Medicines sans frontiers? Not for older people

Does taking medicines place an invisible, sometimes impenetrable, frontier around older Australians, hampering their lifestyles?

La Trobe University researchers found that this may be the case. A number of Australians aged 60 and above reported a sense of their life being controlled by when and how they needed to use medication.

The results of the investigation were published in a recent edition of The Australian Journal of Ageing.

Ms Sandra Kippen, a lecturer in the Department of Health and Environment at the Bendigo Campus, led a team which discovered considerable frustration among 15 women and 11 men aged 60 and above interviewed in Bendigo and a nearby small rural community.

'We found that embarking on medication can impact significantly on lifestyles and erect barriers to a positive experience of ageing through exacerbating loss of control,' Ms Kippen said.

Working with colleagues, Dr Julie Ellis, a senior lecturer in Nursing and Midwifery, and Ms Mary Fraser, a careers officer, Ms Kippen interviewed 26 participants in five focus groups, four from Bendigo and one from a rural community and examined their medicine taking and lifestyles.

She said that older Australians used analgesic and psychotropic medicines in large quantities and that over-prescription of such medicines was endemic.

The possibility that they may have valid reasons for non-compliance because of the medicine's effect on their lifestyle, its side-effects and a preference for alternatives, generally had been ignored.

Ms Kippen said all participants expressed mixed feelings about taking medicine and those not taking it regularly were happy to stay off it as long as possible.

Most were grateful for the benefits of medication, but others were resentful that their lives revolved around taking their next tablet. Several spoke of interrupted social events because they had forgotten their tablets, or had to go home to take them.

Others had to plan carefully so that the effects of medication did not infringe on family and social occasions. This was worse for rural participants who often had to travel long distances.

Other problems included the need to change lifestyle as they had to stay away from social occasions to avoid embarrassment or fatigue. Loss of libido and sexual dysfunction, sometimes resulting from other side effects such as fatigue, was also an issue.

There were strong indications that older people felt that the information given to them about their medicines by health care professionals was insufficient. One example was the effect on libido. 'It is almost as if it is presumed that sexual activity switches off when the pension switches on,' Ms Kippen said.

She emphasised that while the study was small and its results limited, the introduction of medication into a person's life was not a neutral event. 'It may impact negatively and erode the sense of control. As our population ages, increased resources will be required to maintain the social and psychological well-being of older people.

'More importantly, older people should be supported to live their lives as autonomously as possible. Our results indicate that the social impact of medication on older adults is worthy of further consideration.'