Medication Management, Mild Cognitive Impairment and Occupational Therapy: A Scoping Review

Medication management is an important Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL) with significant consequences when it cannot be completed correctly due to unintentional errors. With the inclusion of medication management in the occupational therapy scope of practice, it is important for therapists to understand its correlation to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to better recognize and address areas of need for clients. A scoping review was conducted to answer two questions: (1) What is the association of MCI with medication management? (2) Which areas of cognitive processes might foreshadow unintentional medication errors? MCI showed a strong correlation with medication management errors. Executive function showed a correlation to medication management with mixed relationships with different subcategories of executive function. Memory showed mixed results, but tended to have a correlation with medication management. It is important for occupational therapists to assess MCI in older adults as it may go unrecognized in earlier stages.