Overcoming the Clinical Barriers of Low Literacy and Medication Noncompliance Among the Elderly

Common barriers to medication noncompliance include complex medication schedules, inadequate teaching, poor vision, or loss of dexterity. However, a less obvious factor is that of low literacy. Tailoring and cuing, derived from theories of behavior modification, define the problem by the current, immediate behaviors of the patient and analyze the events that normally occur immediately before and after prescribed medication times. Through the use of tailoring and cuing, the person's everyday life will not be drastically altered and the patient will feel in control of the medication schedule.