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PubMed2002

Medication adherence among HIV+ adults: effects of cognitive dysfunction and regimen complexity.

BACKGROUND: Although the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy in the treatment of HIV infection has led to considerable improvement in morbidity and mortality, unless patients are adherent to their drug regimen (i.e., at least 90 to 95% of doses taken), viral replication may ensue and drug-resistant strains of the virus may emerge. METHODS: The authors studied the extent to which neuropsychological compromise and medication regimen complexity are predictive of poor adherence in a convenience sample of 137 HIV-infected adults. Medication adherence was tracked through the use of electronic monitoring technology (MEMS caps). RESULTS: Two-way analysis of variance revealed that neurocognitive compromise as well as complex medication regimens were associated with significantly lower adherence rates. Cognitively compromised participants on more complex regimens had the greatest difficulty with adherence. Deficits in executive function, memory, and attention were associated with poor adherence. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that neuropsychological compromise was associated with a 2.3 times greater risk of adherence failure. Older age (>50 years) was also found to be associated with significantly better adherence. CONCLUSIONS: HIV-infected adults with significant neurocognitive compromise are at risk for poor medication adherence, particularly if they have been prescribed a complex dosing regimen. As such, simpler dosing schedules for more cognitively impaired patients might improve adherence.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Suboptimal medication adherence in Parkinson's disease.

Patients take less medication than prescribed in many disease areas but evidence for suboptimal therapy adherence in Parkinson's disease (PD) is limited. A single-center observational study of antiparkinsonian medication was undertaken using electronic monitoring (MEMS; Aardex, Zug, Switzerland) over 3 months. Of 68 patients approached, 6 declined and 8 dropped out, leaving 54 patients (taking 117 preparations) with available data. Poorer compliance was associated significantly with younger age, with taking more antiparkinsonian tablets per day, with higher depression scores, and with poorer quality of life. Of the 54 evaluable patients, 11 (20%) had average total compliance of under 80% (underusers) and 43 (80%) had average total compliance of over 80% (satisfactory adherence). Underusers had median total compliance of 65% (interquartile range, 37-74) versus 98% (interquartile range, 93-102) in the satisfactory adherence group. Timing compliance (number of doses taken in the correct time interval) was poor in both underusers (median, 11%; interquartile range, 2-20) and those with satisfactory adherence (median, 25%; interquartile range, 11-73). In conclusion, poorer compliance is associated with younger age, depression, and more tablets per day, and one-fifth of PD patients underuse medication. Consideration of drug therapy adherence has implications in the management of PD.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2004

Adherence logger for a dry powder inhaler: a new device for medical adherence research.

BACKGROUND: Adherence to inhaled steroid regimens is frequently poor. Finding ways to improve adherence depends on the ability to measure time and date of inhaler use reliably and to detect deliberate dose dumping. There is no such monitor for the popular new dry powder inhalers. OBJECTIVE: To develop and test an electronic monitor for a dry powder inhaler that will provide information on the time and date of use. METHODS: An electronic adherence monitor for the Advair Diskus dry powder inhaler was developed and tested. In this device, inhaler use is determined by detecting and recording the motion of the drug delivery lever in the inhaler with a magnetic sensor. An additional electronic interface and software were also developed to allow the adherence data to be uploaded to a computer for display and analysis. RESULTS: System and reliability tests involving multiple-day and repeated-use tests of the adherence monitor demonstrate the overall performance and reliability of the device, and specifically its ability to record the time and date of dose delivery. In the repeated-use test, 300 successive actuations of the dose delivery lever were correctly sensed and recorded without error. CONCLUSION: The simple-to-use, low-cost, reusable adherence monitor accurately records time and date of inhaler use and thus allows clinical monitoring and adherence studies in patients using the Advair Diskus dry powder inhaler. The same technology should be adaptable to other dry powder inhalers, including the Pulmicort Tubuhaler and the Symbicort Tubuhaler.

Administration, Inhalation↗
PubMed2006

Understanding medication adherence in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a review.

Significant numbers of children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) do not adequately adhere to their treatment regimen. Failure to take the appropriate amount of prescribed medication may result in disease relapse. Although a number of research studies have sought to identify the factors associated with medication nonadherence in this group, no systematic study has sought to evaluate the efficacy of intervention packages in improving adherence. The aim of the current paper is to provide an overview of the research investigating treatment adherence in ALL patients and to identify the relevant risk factors associated with reduced adherence with medication. The paper will further discuss the role of psychologic therapy in improving treatment adherence in children and adolescents with ALL, with a particular focus on identifying the need for controlled outcome studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Medication adherence trends with statins.

Lipid-lowering medication can significantly reduce the risk for cardiac events in patients with dyslipidemia. Despite well-publicized guidelines and the availability of potentially effective therapies, many patients do not achieve their lipid goals and remain at high risk for cardiac events because of poor adherence. To assess adherence to statin therapy based on an analysis of pharmacy records, the records of 562 patients were screened. A washout rule, designed to ensure that only new medication starts were analyzed, resulted in the inclusion of 140 records in this study. Dates of prescription fillings, drug name and strength, quantity dispensed, and the number of days supplied were recorded. Length of therapy, persistence, medication possession ratio (MPR), and median gap between prescriptions were calculated. Overall persistence declined from 56% at 9 months to 35% at 12 months. Persistence at the study end point was 34% for men, 18% for women, 19% for patients younger than 65 years, and 41% for patients aged 65 years and older. The median number of gap days between prescription refills was 6.83 for all patients and was approximately 7 days longer for women than for men. The number of gap days differed only slightly for patients younger than 65 years compared with patients aged 65 years or older (6.44 vs 7.41, respectively). MPRs ranged from 0.64 to 0.56, with no substantive between-group differences. Among the statins used most often in this study, persistence was highest with atorvastatin (36%) compared with simvastatin (26%) and pravastatin (5%). Adherence to statin therapy can result in significant improvement. In patients with dyslipidemia, personal interventions by healthcare providers can improve compliance with potentially effective therapy.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Predictors of antipsychotic medication adherence in patients recovering from a first psychotic episode.

BACKGROUND: Many patients recovering from a first psychotic episode will discontinue medication against medical advice, even before a 1-year treatment course is completed. Factors associated with treatment adherence in patients with chronic schizophrenia include beliefs about severity of illness and need for treatment, treatment with typical versus atypical antipsychotic and medication side effects. METHOD: In this 2-year prospective study of 254 patients recovering from a first episode of schizophrenia, schizophreniform, or schizoaffective disorder we examined the relationship between antipsychotic medication non-adherence and patient beliefs about: need for treatment, antipsychotic medication benefits, and negative aspects of antipsychotic medication treatment. We also examined the relationship between medication non-adherence and treatment with either haloperidol or olanzapine, and objective measures of symptom response and side effects. RESULTS: The likelihood of becoming medication non-adherent for 1 week or longer was greater in subjects whose belief in need for treatment was less (HR=1.75, 95% CI 1.16, 2.65, p=0.0077) or who believed medications were of low benefit (HR=2.88, 95 CI 1.79-4.65, p<0.0001). Subjects randomized to haloperidol were more likely to become medication non-adherent for >or=1 week than subjects randomized to olanzapine (HR-1.51, 95% CI 1.01, 2.27, p=0.045). CONCLUSION: Beliefs about need for treatment and the benefits of antipsychotic medication may be intervention targets to improve likelihood of long-term medication adherence in patients recovering from a first episode of schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or schizophreniform disorder.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Medication adherence in pediatric and adolescent liver transplant recipients.

OBJECTIVE: Nonadherence to medications is a leading cause of morbidity in children and adolescents who have had a transplant, yet there are no published data about the use of different methods for detecting whether these children are taking their medications. There are also no published data about the age of transition at which a child assumes responsibility over taking the medications. This information is important if interventions to improve adherence are contemplated. METHODS: We present an analysis of data obtained in the first year of the implementation of an adherence assessment protocol at a pediatric liver transplant clinic in a tertiary medical care center. Data were obtained for children and adolescents who had a liver transplant at least 1 year before the assessments took place. We used 5 adherence detection methods. The 4 subjective methods were self-reported, scaled questionnaires answered by nurses, physicians, caregivers, and patients. For the objective method, a standard deviation (SD) was calculated for tacrolimus blood levels obtained from each patient over time. A higher SD suggests increased variation among patients' blood levels and hence more erratic medication taking. We also asked the patients and caregivers who is responsible for taking the medications and what are the reasons for not taking them. The medical outcome measures were biopsy-proven rejection episodes, number of biopsies regardless of the results, number of hospital admissions, and number of in-patient days. RESULTS: An analysis of 81 cases (258 assessments) revealed that the only method that predicted the medical outcome variables (biopsy-proven rejection and number of biopsies) was the SD of medication blood levels. Patients', clinicians', and caregivers' reports were not predictive. Clinicians' ratings of adherence were not correlated with patients' or caregivers'. The transition of responsibility for medication taking occurred approximately at the age of 12 years. Forgetfulness was cited as the most common reason for nonadherence by patients and caregivers; medication side effects were not frequently cited. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that clinical impression is not sufficient to determine whether children and adolescents are taking their medications after they have had a liver transplant. An objective assessment method should be used. Interventions targeting adherence should address the child's increasing role beginning in early adolescence. A clinical protocol incorporating objective assessments of adherence could potentially be implemented in other settings. It could form the basis for the evaluation of efficacy of interventions seeking to improve adherence to medications.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Reliability and validity of a new Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS) for the psychoses.

Medication compliance is one of the foremost problems affecting neuroleptic efficacy in psychiatric patients. To date, compliancy has most commonly been assessed with the Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI) developed by Hogan et al. (Hogan, T.P., Awad, A.G., Eastwood, R., 1983. A self-report scale predictive of drug compliance in schizophrenics: reliability and discriminative validity. Psychol. Med. 13, 177-183). The present study identified several deficiencies in the DAI. Using the partial credit version of the Item Response Theory measurement model, the DAI was refined with the aim of greater validity and clinical utility. The new inventory was administered to 66 patients, the majority of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia. When available, lithium levels and carer ratings of compliance were also recorded and used to verify compliancy. The new inventory appears to be a valid and reliable measure of compliancy for psychoactive medications.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Factors associated with medication adherence in African American and white patients with bipolar disorder.

BACKGROUND: African American patients may be less likely than white patients to adhere to maintenance pharmacotherapy for bipolar disorder. The purpose of this study was to examine rates of medication nonadherence, self-perceived reasons for nonadherence, and attitudes associated with non-adherence in these ethnic groups. METHOD: 20 African American and 30 white subjects with DSM-IV bipolar I disorder participated in this study. At a single follow-up visit with patients at least 4 months after their first hospitalization for acute mania, we assessed demographics, symptom severity, degrees of adherence, reasons for non-adherence, and self-perceptions regarding factors previously associated with nonadherence using a visual analog scale (VAS). The cross-sectional data that are the subject of this report were obtained from July 1, 2002, through June 30, 2004. RESULTS: Over 50% of participants in each group were currently either fully or partially nonadherent with medications. Greater than 20% of participants in each group denied having bipolar disorder and described physical side effects from medications as contributing to nonadherence. In principal components analysis of the VAS, 2 components were identified. The first component contained patient-related factors associated with nonadherence, while the second contained a combination of illness- and medication-related factors. African American participants were more likely to endorse patient-related factors associated with nonadherence relative to white participants. Specifically, African Americans self-endorsed a fear of becoming addicted to medications and feeling that medications were symbols of mental illness. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that both African American and white patients with bipolar disorder demonstrate poor medication adherence that they attribute to illness/medication-related factors (denial of illness, physical side effects). However, patient-related factors (fear of addiction, medication as a symbol of illness) accounted for ethnic differences on self-perceived ratings of nonadherence factors. Differences in the reasons for nonadherence relative to culturally biased self-perceptions may help explain nonadherence behaviors in the African American community.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Epilepsy self-management: a comparison of self-efficacy and outcome expectancy for medication adherence and lifestyle behaviors among people with epilepsy.

The purpose of this study was to describe self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies toward medication, seizure, and lifestyle management behaviors among 108 adults with epilepsy. Participants responded to an adapted version of the Epilepsy Self-Efficacy and Epilepsy Outcome Expectancy scales. Modifiable behavioral risk factors such as confidence for following medication dosing schedule, planning for medication refills, coping with adverse effects of medication, getting sufficient sleep, avoiding alcohol, and obtaining social support were identified. A larger proportion of persons reported higher self-efficacy for medication management behaviors than for healthful lifestyle behaviors. Findings from this study extend previous research on chronic disease that showed that individuals may be adherent with medication therapy, but not with healthful lifestyle behaviors necessary for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease. Individuals with low self-efficacy would benefit from interventions that increase efficacy beliefs to enhance their ability to adopt and maintain good self-management practices.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Better medication adherence results in greater improvement in severity of psoriasis.

BACKGROUND: Patients are commonly nonadherent to medication regimens. In dermatology, there has been little study of the effect of nonadherence on outcomes. OBJECTIVES: To test the association between adherence behaviour and changes in severity of psoriasis. METHODS: Twenty-four subjects with psoriasis were enrolled in an 8-week, left/right, controlled trial of salicylic acid plus topical tacrolimus ointment vs. salicylic acid plus placebo. Subjects were given salicylic acid to apply to all lesions. The salicylic acid was supplied in a bottle with a medication event monitoring system cap in order to assess adherence to the salicylic acid. The primary outcome for this study was the relationship between the change in the disease severity (change in sum score of erythema, scale and thickness scores for a target plaque) and medication adherence. RESULTS: The mean initial disease severity was 5.8 on a nine-point sum score scale. For the topical tacrolimus-treated side, a decrease in adherence rate of 10% was associated with a 1-point increase in severity (P < 0.05). For the placebo-treated side, adherence was not significantly correlated with changes in severity. CONCLUSIONS: Nonadherence may have a significant role in altering clinical trial data, skewing it towards ineffectiveness. Improved outcomes in psoriasis may be achievable through interventions that improve patients' adherence to treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Medication adherence in elderly patients receiving home health services following hospital discharge.

OBJECTIVE: To assess prevalence and risk factors for medication under- and overadherence in a two-week period following hospital discharge in adults > or = 65 years. DESIGN: Prospective, cohort study. SETTING: Three home healthcare agencies in Madison, Wisconsin, and surrounding vicinity. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred forty-seven older participants taking three or more medications who were hospitalized for medical illness, received home nursing after discharge, and completed the two-week interview. MEASUREMENTS: The main outcome measures were having at least one medication with less than 70% adherence (underadherence) and having at least one medication with more than 120% adherence (overadherence) based on pill counts. RESULTS: Forty-five (30.6%) participants were underadherent and 27 (18.4%) participants were overadherent with at least one medication> In a multivariate model, underadherence was predicted by poor cognition (OR 2.5; 95% CI 1.02 to 6.10) and higher medication use (OR 1.16; 95% CI 1.03 to 1.31, for each 1-unit increase in number of medications). Both poor cognition and low education were significantly associated with overadherence in univariate analysis; however, neither variable was significant once included in the multivariate model. CONCLUSIONS: Under- and overadherence to medications is common after hospital discharge. Poor cognition and a greater number of medications were associated with underadherence. Poor and lower education were markers for overadherence; however, further study is needed to determined whether these are independent predictors. Patients who have impaired cognition or are taking a greater number of medications after hospitalization may benefit from targeted interventions to monitor and improve medication compliance.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2006

Methods for evaluation of medication adherence and persistence using automated databases.

PURPOSE: Our aim was to perform a systematic review of the methods currently being used to assess adherence and persistence in pharmacoepidemiological and pharmacoeconomic studies using automated databases. METHODS: A MEDLINE search of English language literature was performed to identify studies published between January 1, 1980 and March 31, 2004 that evaluated adherence, compliance, persistence, switching, or discontinuations of medications using automated dispensing data (pharmacy records). Two study investigators independently reviewed the abstracts and articles to determine relevant studies according to specified criteria. RESULTS: A total of 136 articles met the criteria for evaluation. The types of measures of adherence and persistence commonly reported include the medication possession ratio and related measures of medication availability (77 studies), discontinuation/continuation (58 studies), switching (34 studies), medication gaps (13 studies), refill compliance (7 studies), and retentiveness/turbulence (4 studies). Specific issues considered include the assessment of exposed time to drug therapy and specification of the follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: The terminology, definitions, and methods to determine adherence and persistence differ greatly in the published literature. The appropriateness and choice of the specific measure employed should be determined by the overall goals of the study, as well as the relative advantages and limitations of the measures.

Databases, Factual↗
PubMed2006

Medication adherence and the associated health-economic impact among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus converting to insulin pen therapy: an analysis of third-party managed care claims data.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the impact on adherence, hypoglycemic events, resource utilization, and the associated health care costs of converting from administration of insulin therapy by a vial/syringe to an insulin analogue pen device in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. METHODS: This pre-post analysis used an integrated medical and pharmacy claims database containing information for >40 million covered lives from 57 managed care health plans in the United States. Adults with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes whose treatment was converted from conventional human or analogue insulin injection (vial/syringe) to a prefilled insulin analogue pen from July 2001 through December 2002, with no use of an insulin analogue pen device in the preceding 6 months, were identified and analyzed retrospectively. The primary end points were adherence (as measured by a medication possession ratio [MPR] > or =80%); the odds ratio (OR) for hypoglycemic events requiring health care resource utilization and resulting in a claim; the association between adherence and hypoglycemic events; and all-cause, hypoglycemia-attributable (HA), and diabetes-attributable (DA) health care costs. RESULTS: A total of 1156 subjects were identified and analyzed (mean [SD] age, 45.4 [13.7] years; 53.8% male; previous insulin vial use: 595 [51.5%] human, 561 [48.5%] analogue). Medication adherence was significantly improved after conversion to the insulin pen device (from 62% to 69%; P < 0.01). The proportion of subjects considered adherent was significantly higher in the period after the conversion compared with before the conversion (54.6% vs 36.1%, respectively; P < 0.01). The likelihood of experiencing a hypoglycemic event was significantly reduced after conversion (OR = 0.50; 95% CI, 0.37-0.68; P < 0.05), and the incidence of hypoglycemia in subjects with an MPR > or =80% decreased by nearly two thirds (incident rate ratio = 0.35; 95% CI, 0.11-0.81; P < 0.05). There were significant decreases in HA emergency department visits (OR = 0.44; 95% CI, 0.21-0.92; P < 0.05) and physician visits (OR = 0.39; 95% CI, 0.24-0.64; P < 0.05), whereas HA-related hospitalizations and outpatient visits remained similar after conversion. Total mean all-cause annual treatment costs were reduced by $1590 per patient (from $16,359 to $14,769; P < 0.01). Annual HA costs were reduced by $788 per patient (from $1415 to $627; P < 0.01), predominantly as a result of decreased hospitalization costs (from $857 to $288; P < 0.01). Annual DA costs were reduced by $600 per patient (from $8827 to $8227; P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Among these patients with type 2 diabetes treated in a managed care setting, a switch from administration of insulin therapy by vial/syringe to a prefilled insulin analogue pen device was associated with improved medication adherence, fewer claims for hypoglycemic events, reduced emergency department and physician visits, and lower annual treatment costs.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Relation of hostility to medication adherence, symptom complaints, and blood pressure reduction in a clinical field trial of antihypertensive medication.

The impact of hostility was examined in relation to the conduct and results of a clinical field trial. Data were derived from a multi-center randomized double-blind study of the comparative effects of antihypertensive therapy (captopril, methyldopa and propranolol) on the quality of life of 620 hypertensive men. Hostility levels were higher in subjects reporting skipping medication dosages compared to those reporting they always complied with the medication schedule. Reporting of symptoms often associated with antihypertensive drug regimens was positively related to hostility scores throughout the study, even during the blinded placebo period. Persons with high hostility scores showed the greatest decline in blood pressure independent of type of antihypertensive medication. However, there was some limited evidence that hostility levels were significantly reduced by one antihypertensive medication. Overall, the present findings suggest that double-blind pharmacologic clinical trials may benefit from using reliable measures of hostility as covariates in the evaluation of symptom reports and amount of blood pressure reduction.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Attitudes toward HIV protease inhibitors and medication adherence in an inner city HIV population.

The objective of this pilot study was to examine attitudes toward protease inhibitors (PIs) among HIV-infected individuals and to assess the relationship between PI attitudes and adherence to PIs. Respondents were recruited from four AIDS service organizations in New York City; the total sample consisted of 97 HIV-infected individuals who were taking a PI. The sample consisted largely of African Americans and Latinos from inner city areas, and most had a low level of education. Adherence was suboptimal, with more than 50% of respondents failing to take their PI medications exactly as prescribed within the previous month. Individuals who had recently used illegal drugs within the past 6 months were more likely to be nonadherent to PIs. Those who were not adherent to PI medications reported greater concern about the side effects of PIs and were more likely to believe that it was acceptable to skip doses of PIs.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Clinical assessment of medication adherence among HIV-infected children: examination of the Treatment Interview Protocol (TIP).

This paper presents findings of a multi-site study designed to document: (1) caregivers' regimen knowledge; (2) barriers to adherence; and (3) the relationships between adherence, regimen knowledge and barriers. Fifty-one predominantly female, African American parents and caregivers of HIV-infected children completed the Treatment Interview Protocol (TIP), a brief, structured interview designed to assess regimen knowledge and barriers to adherence. TIP data were compared to information obtained from medical records and pharmacy refill histories. Forty-nine per cent of children were considered adherent, defined as > or = 90% refill rate, which was significantly associated with virologic response. Significant regimen knowledge deficits were observed among caregivers, and inaccurate identification of prescribed medications was significantly associated with adherence. Caregivers identified 21 barriers to adherence, and poor adherence was significantly related to the number of barriers reported. Results indicate that the TIP is a successful tool for identifying regimen knowledge, potential adherence barriers and adherence problems. Results suggest that the TIP could be integrated into clinical practice as a quick, effective tool to identify poor adherers and guide interventions and treatment decision making.

Anti-HIV Agents↗