Event-based prospective memory is independently associated with self-report of medication management in older adults

Abstract

Background: Identifying potentially modifiable risk factors for medication non-adherence in older adults is important in order to enhance screening and intervention efforts designed to improve medication-taking behavior and health outcomes. The current study sought to determine the unique contribution of prospective memory (PM) (i.e. ‘remembering to remember’) to successful self-reported medication management in older adults.Methods: Sixty-five older adults with current medication prescriptions completed a comprehensive research evaluation of sociodemographic, psychiatric, and neurocognitive functioning, which included the memory for adherence to medication scale (MAMS), prospective and retrospective memory questionnaire (PRMQ), and a performance-based measure of PM that measured both semantically related and semantically unrelated cue–intention (i.e. when–what) pairings.Results: A series of hierarchical regressions controlling for biopsychosocial, other neurocognitive, and medication-related factors showed that elevated complaints on the PM scale of the PRMQ and worse performance on an objective semantically unrelated event-based PM task were independent predictors of poorer medication adherence as measured by the MAMS.Conclusions: PM plays an important role in self-report of successful medication management among older adults. Findings may have implications for screening for older individuals ‘at risk’ of non-adherence, as well as the development of PM-based interventions to improve medication adherence and, ultimately, long-term health outcomes in older adults.

Keywords:

• episodic memory
• adherence
• neuropsychological assessment
• geropsychology

Acknowledgements

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, nor the United States Government. Data were collected as part of Brenton Maxwell's Doctor of Psychology thesis project. The authors thank the study volunteers of the Western Australia Participant Pool for their participation.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health [grant number R01-MH073419] to Dr Woods.