Research Scholar JSS College of Pharmacy JSS College of Pharmacy, JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research, Mysuru Mysuru, India
Background: Medication adherence plays a significant role in achieving positive therapeutic outcomes in any illness. Low medication adherence in acute clinical conditions also leads to disease progression and complications such as resistance to treatment. There are limited studies that assessed medication adherence in patients with acute clinical conditions.
Objectives: To assess the medication adherence and causes of non-adherence to medications among patients with acute clinical conditions.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of three months in an ambulatory patient education center of a tertiary care hospital. All the necessary demographic and clinical data of patients who visited the study site and were diagnosed with acute clinical conditions were recorded. Medication adherence was telephonically assessed using a newly developed and validated 5-item questionnaire, at the end of the treatment. Medication adherence was assessed descriptively and presented as frequency and percentages. The participants were categorized as non-adherent (≤70%), partially adherent (71-80%), adherent (81-100%), and over-adherent (>100%). The reasons for medication non-adherence were documented in patients with ≤ 99% of medication adherence.
Results: A total of 128 patients participated in the study. A majority of the patients were males (52.3%, 67/128) and a majority were below the age of 60 years (87.5, 112/128). A majority of the participants were adherent (64%, 82/128), followed by non-adherent (24.2%, 31/128), partially adherent (8.6%, 11/128), and over adherent (3.1%, 4/128) to their prescribed medications. A total of 62 patients had self-reported ≤99% of medication adherence. The most frequent causes for medication non-adherence among these 62 patients were, “I don’t need to take medications once I feel better” (70.9%, 44/62) followed by “I forgot to take medication” (16.1%, 10/62).
Conclusions: Around one-third of the patients with acute clinical conditions were non-adherent to their prescribed medications. It is important to identify and address the barriers to medication adherence in these patients to prevent treatment failure including progression to disease complications.
