Objective: Medication management errors are suspected to be prevalent among older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This study examined types of simulated medication-taking errors in cognitively normal older adults (CN; n = 131), single domain amnestic MCI (sdMCI, n = 91), and multi-domain MCI (mdMCI, n = 44). Errors were measured using the medication management ability assessment (MMAA). Methods: 266 participants seen for neuropsychological evaluation (94.4% White, 57.9% female, average age = 72, average education = 14 years) completed the MMAA (version 4.1), a performance-based task of medication management. Group differences in MMAA total scores, accuracy, and error types were evaluated using Kruskall-Wallis H tests. This study was the first to explore a newly operationalized error, perseverations, caused by taking a specific dose ≥2 times during the simulation. Results: CN and sdMCI groups had higher MMAA total scores than individuals with mdMCI, indicating better overall performance. The mdMCI group made a higher number of omission errors (missed pills) than other groups, but no differences were found for commission errors (extra pills). The sdMCI group made more perseverative errors compared to the CN group. Conclusions: Individuals with mdMCI made more simulated medication management errors than CN and sdMCI groups, indicating that they may be most vulnerable to difficulties in medication management. In contrast, sdMCI individuals were more likely to make perseverative errors, which may reflect a tendency towards overcompensation of memory loss. Future studies should assess whether MMAA performance is associated with patterns of real-world medication-taking in more diverse samples of older adults.
Keywords: Mild cognitive impairment; ecological validity; everyday functioning; medication management; medication management ability assessment.