Knowledge, attitudes, and barriers related to medication adherence of older patients with coronary heart disease in China.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and barriers related to medication adherence in older patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). METHODS: A total of 272 older patients with CHD were investigated by the Chinese version of the Medication Adherence Scale. The score ranges for the knowledge, attitudes, and barrier subscales were 0-30, 0-30, and 0-110, respectively. Higher scores indicate more knowledge, positive attitudes, and more barriers related to medication adherence. RESULTS: The median scores of knowledge, attitudes and barriers were 25.5, 28, and 8, respectively. Having stents, living alone, good financial status and fewer chronic diseases were related to more knowledge. Younger age, having no stent, and more chronic diseases were associated with more barriers. Patients with good financial status and higher age had more positive attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding older patients' knowledge, attitudes, and barriers related to medication adherence and their associated factors can help develop tailored interventions in medication adherence studies.

Psychometric evaluation of the Medication Adherence Scale in older Chinese patients with coronary heart disease.

OBJECTIVES: To translate the Medication Adherence Scale (MAS) into Chinese and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of MAS (C-MAS). METHODS: The study used a cross-sectional design. The performance of C-MAS was assessed among 170 older patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). The psychometric properties of C-MAS, including content validity, factor structure, hypothesized validity, and internal consistency, were tested. RESULTS: The content validity index of the C-MAS was 0.90. Three factors were identified using the principal component analysis. The Cronbach's α was 0.868 for the total scale and ranged from 0.703 to 0.941 for the three subscales of C-MAS. In addition, the construct validity of the C-MAS was confirmed to test the hypothesis. CONCLUSIONS: The three-factor C-MAS has good validity and internal consistency in older Chinese patients with CHD. The C-MAS can be used to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and barriers related to medication adherence among this population.