Objective method for measuring adherence- pillcounting and medical dispensers

Question 1

Name 3 objective methods to measure adherence?

Answer 1

1. Medical dispensers.
2. Pill counting
   3.Electrical mesuring devices (e.g Trackcap)

EMD

Question 2

What are medical dispensers?

Answer 2

• Devices that organise and store medications, which require patients to place the correct tablets in specific compartments (typically named with the days of the week/ times)

Question 3

Medical dispensers (simple definition)

Answer 3

• Devices that store and organise medications.

Question 4

What is pillcounting?

Answer 4

• A method that requires the patient to bring all medication containers to a medical review. The practitioner counts the remaining tablets and calculates the % of taken medication.

Question 5

What are Electrical Measuring Devices (EMD)?

Answer 5

• Chung and Naya (2000) used an electrical measuring device called the ‘TrackCap’ .

Question 6

What does the ‘TrackCap’ do?

Answer 6

• Tracks how OFTEN a medication bottle is opened
• and whether it is taken at the correct intervals.

Question 7

Name one strength and one weakness of using objective methods to measure non-adherence?

Answer 7

• Strength- Convience/useful
• Weakness- validity (deceptive results)

Question 8

Explain 1 weakness of using objective methods to measure adherence?

Answer 8

• Limited validity- cannot confirm whether the patient is actually injesting the medication or just removing the pills w/out taking them. (appearing falsely adherent)

Question 9

Name 1 strength of using objective method to measure adherence.

Answer 9

• Convience- simplifies medication managment via pre-sorted doses and reminders.