This study was conducted to develop an education program for safe drug use in the rural elderly and to measure the effect of the program.

This study utilized a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The subjects of this study consisted of 40 older persons who were more than 65 years old and lived in G and C meon, Y gun, Gyeongsang-bukdo and visited the public health subcenter. Twenty were assigned to the experimental group and 20 to the control group. The education was provided for one and a half hours, once a week for 3 weeks. Data was collected before, right after, and one month after the program.

The first hypothesis was supported(F=79.24, p=0.000) showing that the knowledge scores of the drug use of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group at post education and one month after education. The second hypothesis was supported(F=23.84, p=0.000) showing that the drug misuse and abuse prevention behavior scores in the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group at post education and one month after the education.

This study suggests that the education for safe drug use is effective in promoting knowledge and behavior for safe drug use of the rural elderly.