Nonadherence

Medication non-adherence can lead to many things such as not creating the desired effect and toxicity depending on when the medication was supposed to be taken and if there was supposed to be food, drink or the like. According to the American Society on Aging and American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Foundation "Medication nonadherence accounts for more than 10% of older adult hospital admissions, nearly one-fourth of nursing home admissions, and 20% of preventable adverse drug events among older persons in the ambulatory setting. It is estimated that medication nonadherence results in 125,000 deaths annually, and costs the US health care system $100 billion per year." These numbers are serious! When talking about something that could be solved just by taking the medication properly that was prescribed to them these people could possibly spare themselves from the nursing home, high hospital bills, and even death! There are 4,175 reported deaths in all of the Operation Iraqi Freedom campaigns combined; this means that there are more people dying per year because they didn't take thier medication as people that have died in combat over 6 years! Grim numbers for something I think is preventable. If someone that you know forgets to take medicine GET THEM A REMINDER!!!
http://www.epill.com/bysku.html


-DRS