ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1660554
This article is part of the Research TopicEvidence for Assessing Drug Safety and Drug Use in Older People: Volume IIIView all 3 articles
Latent Profiles and associated factors of Medication Literacy in elderly patients with chronic diseases
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Nursing, People’s Hospital of Deyang City, Deyang, China
- 2Sichuan Nursing Vocational College, Chengdu, China
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Background With the global burden of chronic diseases and the acceleration of population aging, medication literacy is crucial for self-management among elderly patients. However, the potential patterns of medication literacy remain understudied, leaving us unable to clearly categorize medication literacy among elderly patients with different characteristics. Objective The purpose of this study is to investigate the Medication Literacy of elderly patients with chronic diseases. Specifically, it aims to examine the current status of Medication Literacy in this population; to analyze distinct patterns of Medication Literacy and their relationship with chronic disease self-efficacy; and to explore the factors influencing these different patterns. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using the convenience sampling method. Chronic disease patients admitted to the geriatrics department of a tertiary-level hospital in Deyang City, China were recruited between January and June 2025, with a final sample size of 316 participants.A general information questionnaire, a medication literacy scale for elderly patients with chronic diseases, and a chronic disease self-efficacy scale were used to conduct the survey. Latent profiles of medication literacy among these patients were identified using Mplus 8.3.Logistic regression was employed using SPSS23.0 to analyse the factors influencing different categories of medication literacy. Results Finally, 316 elderly patients with chronic diseases were included. Elderly patients with chronic diseases had a total medication literacy median score 70.50 (IQR:50.00, 89.00) and a total disease self-efficacy median score 47.00 (IQR:38.00, 52.00). Medication literacy of elderly patients with chronic diseases can be classified into four potential categories: comprehensive deficiency type (16.8%),communication strength type(28.8%),balanced development type(29.7%), and knowledge proficiency type(24.7%). Logistic regression analysis showed that age, education, personal monthly income, and chronic disease self-efficacy were associated factors of medication literacy in elderly patients with chronic diseases (all P<0.05). Conclusion Overall, medication literacy among elderly patients with chronic diseases is at a moderate level and shows heterogeneity. Future prospective studies should test hypotheses such as:To address this, healthcare professionals should prioritize patients falling into the comprehensive-deficiency and communication-strength types, developing tailored interventions to enhance their competencies based on these distinct characteristics.
Keywords: Aged, Chronic Disease, Health Literacy, self-efficacy, latent class analysis
Received: 10 Jul 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Yan, Lu, Wang, Zhou, Wang, Zhong and Qing. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhenfan Liu, 513990051@qq.com
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