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Do you frequently take the wrong medication? Older adults' ability to identify medical information is weak.

CARE Senior Research Associate Sumithra Devi Suppiah explains why health literacy is a problem among many older people in this interview by Channel 8 Morning Express segment.

Watch the interview here (time stamp - 17:00) or read the transcribed version here

The literacy rate for people above 15 years old in Singapore is as high as 97.6%. However, high literacy does not mean medical literacy is equally good. Research done by local institutes and medical schools found that there is a room for improvement in medical literacy. Many patients mistakenly took the wrong medication or at the wrong time due to inability to understand medication information. Since medical literacy and health literacy are interrelated, one study showed that two-thirds of older adults in Singapore have insufficient health literacy, which is concerning. Morning express brings you to understand what medical literacy is. 

For 70 years old retiree Fu Fang Ming, he was diagnosed with hereditary diabetes in his 30s and later suffered from leg numbness, hepatitis, discomfort with eyes and other ailments. He is required to take multiple medications to control his medical condition. Despite organizing his medications using different organizers (for day and night medications), he will still take the wrong medicine. 

Fu Fang Ming, retiree: 

“Taken the wrong medicines, took the wrong container, so I took the night medicines in the day and realized at night when there were several pills missing.” 

One’s ability to recognize, understand and use medicine determines one’s medical literacy. This also directly affects their personal health and recovery speed. Pharmacists from many hospitals and interviewed institutions said that people’s knowledge in this aspect needs to be improved. 

Dr. Ye Kai Zhen, Lecturer of Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore/Council member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore said: 

“Most patients are unable to say the name and dosage of the medicine they are taking. They usually say they take one pill, or they identify the medicine by its color. They have poor drug recognition.” 

Drugs will change as their medical conditions change and there are many ways to take and use them. Other than understanding the medication effect and information, how and when to seek consultation is very important. 

Su Hui Min, Senior Pharmacist at Tan Tock Seng Hospital said: 

“Especially when medicine changed. Today, the doctor may change the medicine for high blood pressure and increase the dosage of another medicine. Then for some reason, a month later, (they were) hospitalized, when discharged, there are changes in the medications (they) had to take.” 

In addition, people with visual and communication impairments, as well as patients with multiple chronic diseases, often have weaker health knowledge, which directly affects their medical literacy. 

Research conducted by Duke-NUS Medical School and Monash University found that older adults have lower health literacy. 

• About two-thirds of older adults have insufficient medical literacy and are unable to understand information conveyed by the healthcare workers.

• 55.5% of older adults reporting needing help to read hospital provided materials.

• 58.4% of the respondents due to difficulty understanding written information, have problems understanding their medical conditions.

• Nearly half of the respondents have problem understanding their medical conditions. 

• A vast majority of the older adults reported a lack of confidence when filling out medical forms by themselves. 

Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore also found that when there are any queries about using the medications, young people mainly sought answers through the internet. Older adults will choose to consult doctors, friends or social media for information. Regarding this, pharmacists remind people to be cautious when searching for medicine information through the internet or social media as well as non-professionals’ opinions.