Technology-enabled medication adherence for seniors living in the community: Experiences, lessons, and the road ahead

• Main Authors: TAN, Hwee Xian, TAN, Hwee-Pink, LIANG, Huiguang
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: Community; IoT; Medication adherence; Seniors; Technology; Gerontology; Software Engineering
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/4094; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/5097/viewcontent/Tan2018_Chapter_Technology_EnabledMedicationAd.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Medication non-adherence in seniors can lead to severe health complications, including morbidity, mortality and decreased quality of life. In view of ageing populations worldwide, there is significant interest among the healthcare sector and researchers to improve medication adherence rates for seniors. However, existing studies in the literature focus primarily on identifying the predictors of medication non-adherence. In this paper, we present our work on technology-enabled medication adherence for 24 community-dwelling seniors over a period of more than 2 years. We leverage Internet of Things (IoT) devices to track inferred medication consumption in the seniors’ homes, and provide quasi real-time alerts to community caregivers, who can then intervene in a timely manner. Our study suggests that seniors generally do not consume medication on a regular basis (in both the frequency and time domains). However, technology-based approaches that allow for real-time tracking and appropriate interventions by caregivers can be effective in improving the medication adherence of these seniors.