As the aging population continues to increase, there has been a rise in the prevalence of multimorbidity in the elderly. The adherence to medication regimens by elderly patients with multimorbidity significantly impacts the effectiveness of chronic disease management.

This study analyses the factors that impact medication adherence among the elderly with multimorbidity in Guangdong province. This study aims to provide a foundation for the management of multimorbidity in this population.

A multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method was used to survey a population of 998 multimorbid patients aged 60 years and above in Guangdong province from October 2022 to March 2023. Medication adherence was the dependent variable, while patient sex, age, marital status, living conditions, education level, personal annual income, family encouragement for medication adherence, family doctor support, number of diseases, disease awareness, medication awareness, BMI, smoking and alcohol consumption were considered as independent variables. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the factors influencing medication adherence among elderly patients with multimorbidity in Guangdong province.

A total of 1 000 questionnaires were distributed and 998 valid questionnaires were collected, with a valid recovery rate of 99.8%. Among the 998 cases of elderly patients with multimorbidity in Guangdong province, there were 719 cases (72.0%) with good adherence to medication and 279 cases (28.0%) with poor medication adherence; there were 512 cases (51.3%) of males and 486 cases (48.7%) of females. The results of multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that: education level (high school/secondary school: OR=0.298, 95%CI=0.117-0.762; college and above: OR=0.325, 95%CI=0.127-0.831), personal annual income (>30 000 to 50 000 yuan: OR=7.694, 95%CI=2.071-28.582; >50 000 to 100 000 yuan: OR=12.408, 95%CI=3.229-47.686; >100 000 to 200 000 yuan: OR=4.893, 95%CI=1.174-20.397), and frequency of family members' supervision of medication taking (occasionally: OR=1.842, 95%CI=1.222-2.779), family doctor's help (slightly helpful: OR=2.537, 95%CI=1.531-4.205), understanding of the condition (mostly understood: OR=3.015, 95%CI=1.948-4.667; better understood: OR=3.510, 95%CI=1.955-6.300; some/no understanding: OR=3.469, 95%CI=1.338-8.994), medication concern (mostly concerned: OR=4.928, 95%CI=3.336-7.278; more concerned: OR=3.670, 95%CI=1.915-7.033; somewhat concerned/unconcerned: OR=8.560, 95%CI=2.497-29.339), BMI (too low: OR=2.303, 95%CI=1.154-4.598; overweight/obese: OR=0.598, 95%CI=0.390-0.915), and alcohol consumption (OR=1.959, 95%CI=1.270-3.022) were the influencing factors of medication adherence among elderly patients with multimorbidity in Guangdong province (P<0.05) .

The elderly patients with multimorbidity in Guangdong province had better medication adherence, at 72.0%. Medication adherence was poorer among the elderly patients with multimorbidity in Guangdong province who were high-income earners, occasionally urged to take medication by their family members, slightly assisted by their family doctors, had a low understanding of their condition, paid little attention to the use of medication, had a low BMI, and drank alcohol. All parties in society should join hands to take multiple measures to improve the medication adherence of elderly patients with multimorbidity in all aspects, strengthen the integrated management of multimorbidity, and promote the health of elderly patients.