What a Medication List Can Miss About Doses Actually Taken
A medication list describes a regimen on paper. It can leave unanswered whether someone missed a dose, changed the timing, or took a different amount. A study in rural Luzhou, China, examined the gap using questionnaires and outpatient records.
What the two sources measured
The study included questionnaires involving 100 older adults and 60 primary care physicians, along with a review of 100 outpatient electronic records. Forty-seven percent of the older participants reported changing medication timing or missing doses, and 37% reported adjusting doses themselves. The record review separately assessed prescription appropriateness.
What to look for in an individual timeline
Keep the prescribed instructions, the dispensing date, and the reported administration separate. The survey percentages reflect reported behavior in this sample. They cannot establish the last dose taken by a particular person or whether an event followed that dose.
Source
Xu and colleagues, Frontiers in Public Health (2026). Journal article · Full text.
