Medicine Book Design for Elderly Patients with Non-Communicable diseases (NCDs)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to: 1) study medication, medication behavior and medication problems in elderly patients with NCDs; 2) design the medicine book to help NCDs medicine consumption in elderly patients; 3) assess the satisfaction of the use of the medication book for elderly patients with NCDs. In the design of medicine book for elderly patients with chronic non-communicable diseases, the research method included gathering information on the medicine taking habits of elderly patients with chronic non-contagious diseases by interviewing nurses, pharmacists and patients themselves. The research instrument used was an interview form. Data collected were analyzed to determine the design guidelines, followed by designing a draft, a developing model and the final model, experimenting with waste materials from pulp and bamboo pulp to produce a prototype of the medicine book, implementing and evaluating the prototype.  The results showed that the medicine taking behaviors of elderly patients with NCDs were forgetting to take medication regularly. Guidelines for designing a medicine book were to store medicines, be easy to carry, easy to use with each page contains pill compartments made of pulp and bamboo pulp with day indication boxes using small pieces of paper insertions - a function that tells the medication taken each day in a week to help remind the patients of how many days they take the medicines.  The boxes are colored by the days from Monday to Sunday.  The bottom compartments which inserted with medicine information are clear compartments with the names, the information, of the medicines as well as when to take the medicines to help preventing wrong medicine taking. The sheets of paper inserted are intended to fill in the information, should be provided to those closest to the patient or relatives to write down the information. The use of waste materials is designed according to environmentally friendly design guidelines. The results of the prototype assessment are moderate satisfactory.