Occupational Therapy
Medication Adherence
Medication Health Literacy
Health literacy is a client's ability to understand and act on health information. In terms of medication adherence, health literacy means that clients need to be able to understand medication labels and take medication appropriately, navigate the complex medical system to fill prescriptions, and to negotiate with physicians for a medication regimen that meets their needs. Given the high overlap of medication adherence and health literacy, it is not surprising that poor health literacy is associated with poor medication adherence (Ngoh, 2003).
In addition to the good health literacy practices spead throughout the intervention, medication health literacy also serves as a specific sub-strategy. The medication health literacy intervention involves a series of specific skills training designed to increase client competence and self-efficacy around medication related tasks, including basic medication practices, reading medication labels, and talking with doctors.
Good Medication Practices
Sometimes people get into bad medication habits over time, or they never learned how to deal with medications. For example, many people with heart disease stop taking their heart medication when they no longer have symptoms. While this is appropriate for a medication for a cold, stopping medication for a chronic health condition like heart disease can cause the condition to become worse. In this strategy the interventionist discusses general good practice for working with medications. Persons who would benefit from this intervention activity are people who verbalized unsafe or less than optimal standard practices during their occupational profile interview. For example, people who report taking other persons medication, giving away unused medication, people who stop and start medication without a physician, have expired medication in their cabinet, etc. Interventionist can use the Managing Your Medicines Pamphlet to provide education in this area.
Reading Medication Labels
If the client struggled with finding the correct information on The Pillbox Test or on the Medication Knowledge Assessment, he or she may benefit from a review of how to read medication labels. The discussion should focus on how to find and implement the right information on the medication label. Information handouts have been developed on reading medication labels for use in intervention. Click here to download the handout or you may look at the images below.
Communicating with the Physician
As described above, health literacy includes talking with the doctor to choose and monitor medications. Persons who may be having difficulty communicating with their doctor may score low on the "Communicate with Physician" portion of the Chronic Condition Self-Efficacy Scale. People receiving this intervention strategy should be educated on two things. First, they should be encouraged to talk to their doctor about their health questions and concerns. Second, they should be prompted to ask the right questions about medications. Interventionist can use page 2-4 of the Managing Your Medicines Pamphlet to provide education in this area.
