Medical Adherence and Aging: Social and Cognitive Perspectives

As the baby boom generation moves toward retirement and health care costs escalate, older adults will be expected to play a more active role in managing their own preventive care and treatment of existing conditions. In this age group, negative health events often occur not because cures for diseases are not available or because proper treatment was not applied, but because patients fail to follow the medical instructions or regimens that maintain their health. Medical complications frequently arise because patients have difficulty understanding and following their providers’ directions, or are unwilling to follow them. In
Medical Adherence and Aging: Social and Cognitive Perspectives
prominent psychologists and geriatricians examine the research on nonadherence using a cognitive, social, and developmental framework. While they focus particularly on the problems of older adults, the findings are highly relevant to other groups of patients who have cognitive compromise, such as those who have psychiatric or neurological disorders, some HIV patients, and patients who are in pain. The context in which medical instructions are presented and comprehended is addressed as well as the role of motivational and judgmental factors in keeping to a treatment regimen. The contributors also discuss the relationship between technology-based delivery of medical services and adherence. This volume will interest psychologists in a variety of subfields including health, rehabilitative, social, and experimental psychology, as well as geriatric nurses, social workers, and researchers in medical schools.