Adherence to medical advice Flashcards
Define adherence.
The degree to which the person’s behaviour corresponds with the agreed recommendations from a healthcare provider.
What are the two types of non-adherence?
Failure to follow treatments.
Failure to attend appointments.
Describe the three types of failure to follow treatments.
Primary non-adherence. It happens when the patient does not collect the medication that they have been prescribed.
Non-persistence. It happens when the patient stops taking their medications without being advised to do so by a medical professional.
Non-conforming. It happens when medication is not taken as prescribed by the patient.
State the problems caused by non-adherence.
Waste of medication.
Time lost due to missed appointments.
Progression of illness.
Increased use of medical resources.
Reduced functional abilities.
Lower quality of life.
Impact on medical research.
Describe the aims of Laba et al. (2012).
To find out which factors contribute the most to rational non-adherence.
To inveatigate whether factors relating to specific medicine and patient background contribute to non-adherence.
Describe the sample of Laba et al. (2012).
Online sampling system was used to collect a representative sample of 161 Australian participants in terms of age, gender, education level and income.
Describe the procedure of Laba et al. (2012).
An online survey with three sections was used.
Section one asked about current medication use and attitudes towards medication.
Section two asked about the Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE).
Section 3 asked about background information of the participant.
Describe the findings of Laba et al. (2012).
Participants’ background did not have a significant effect on adherence.
Cost of medication is a significant factor only for those who do not have private medical insurance.
Most participants considered harms to be of greater importance than benefits when making decisions about adherence.
Medication’s ability to reduce risk of death was seen to be more important than the reduction in symptom frequency.
State some measures of non-adherence.
Subjective measures such as clinical interview and Medical Adherence Measure (MAM)
Objective measures such as medical dispensers, pill counting and TrackCap.
Biological measures such as blood and urine samples.
Describe the aim of Chung and Naya (2000).
To investigate the effectiveness of electronically measuring adherence and compliance to medication in asthma patients.
Describe the sample of Chung and Naya (2000).
57 asthma patients.
Describe the procedure of Chung and Naya (2000).
Patients were given three weeks worth of tablets and instructed to take one tablet in the morning and another one in the evening, approximately 12 hours apart.
Patients were told that compliance was being measured but not how it would be measured.
Bottles of medication are fitted with TrackCap medication event monitoring system (MEMS).
Patients return the unused tablets and bottle at the end of three weeks to be counted.
This is repeated a few times in a 12 week trial.
Describe the conclusion of Chung and Naya (2000).
TrackCap is an accurate measure of compliance and adherence to medication.
Describe the difference between compliance and adherence.
Compliance refers to a passive following of medical orders, whereas adherence refers to more of a collaboration between doctor and patient, nd relates to the patient fully understanding medical advice and following it accurately, even adjusting lifestyle to meet requirements.
