Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.24141/1/4/1/1
Patients’ Adherence to Prescribed Medication
Josip Čulig
; University of Applied Sciences Velika Gorica, Velika Gorica, Croatia
Abstract
Background/Aim
Adherence is the extent to which a patient's behaviour towards medication corresponds with the agreed recommendations from a health care provider. Non-adherence to long-term therapy for chronic diseases in developed countries is on average 50%. Poor adherence is the primary reason for poor outcomes, and is potentially a waste of health care resources. The objective of the Zagreb study was to assess the extent of adherence among the outpatients with long-term medication.
Methods
Patients with chronic diseases were interviewed during their visit to a public pharmacy. Their anonymity was guaranteed. The questionnaire was standardized and approved by the Ethical Committee. 635 questionnaires were collected in total (2000 were distributed). The study design was cross-sectional. The evaluation of pharmacist-patient relationships was also included in the study. 84 pharmacists volunteered to participate in the study.
Results
The average adherence to long-term medication was 41.7%. It was even lower in case of hypertensive patients (39%). The most frequent reasons for non-adherence were forgetfulness (60%), being away from home (45.4%), running out of pills (44.4%), inconvenient time schedule (40.9%), polypharmacy (39.5%), lack of the prescribed brand in the pharmacy (35.9%), feeling well (35.9%), and fear of side effects (29.6%).The pharmacist-patient relationships were seen differently on each side (p<0.05 in 5 of 8 questions). Only 14.3% of interviewed pharmacists asked patients to repeat the advice
out loud, i.e. how to take the prescribed medicine.
Conclusion
Patients’ adherence to long-term medication is low in Zagreb. The strategy for interventions to change patients’ behaviour towards prescribed medication should be widely established. The role of pharmacists could be explored more.
Keywords
adherence; compliance; persistence; questionnaire; long-term medication; pharmacist-patient relationship; Zagreb
Hrčak ID:
199610
URI
Publication date:
27.4.2018.
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