Writing down the pills they take and when they take them can help older people follow their prescriptions, according to a new study.

About half of older adults take medicine incorrectly, and up to one in three of their hospital admissions is blamed on faulty medication use, a news release about the study said.

Psychologists from the University of Illinois had almost 100 people near the age of 69 assigned to either the role of patient or provider. The patients used either a pre-designed form, blank paper or no written materials. The pairs shared information based on made up medication regimens, from a couple medicines with few restrictions to four that had specific times they could be taken.

They had less than 10 minutes to work together to design a plan that was safe for all the pills.

Researchers found that people who created their own tables had the best solutions, followed by those who used a pre-printed form. They said it was because the form was too rigid about meal times.

In a similar experiment in which people were given more time to plan a schedule, people were able to do a better job coming up with a workable schedule, especially using a redesigned form

The authors said a well designed table could help pharmacists and nurses with older patients treating several conditions develop plans their patients can follow.

The report appears in the September issue of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, published by the American Psychological Association.