Interventions to Enhance Patient Adherence to Medication Prescriptions

TLDR

Abstract

ADHERENCE MAY BE DEFINED AS the extent to which a patient’s behavior (in terms of taking medication, following a diet, modifying habits, or attending clinics) coincides with medical or health advice. If a patient is prescribed an antibiotic for an infection to be taken as 1 tablet 4 times a day for a week but takes only 2 tablets a day for 5 days, the adherence would be 36% (10/28). The term adherence is intended to be nonjudgmental, a statement of fact rather than of blame of the prescriber, patient, or treatment. Compliance and concordance are synonyms for adherence. This simple definition of adherence belies the difficulties that many medical regimens present for patients. For example, the regimen described for type 2 diabetes mellitus in a previous article includes a special diet, increased exercise, smoking cessation, oral hypoglycemic drugs, and risk factor management, usually involving additional drugs. Such regimens fulfill theoretical, physiological, and empirical considerations about optimal care, while ignoring practical patient-centered concerns, such as the nature, nurture, culture, and stereotyping of the patient, and the inconvenience, cost, and adverse effects of the treatment. Indeed, low adherence with prescribed treatments is very common. Typical adherence rates for prescribed medications are about 50% with a range of 0% to more than 100%.