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

Visual Aide: A Video on Medication Adherence

Check out this video for a great over-view of medication adherence and why people might become non-compliant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn1eGtf2ZSg

Medication Adherence: To Comply or Not to Comply

At some point or another, we've all been guilty of not taking our medications as directed. Have you ever given up on that bottle of antibiotics because your symptoms were gone, or how about taking an extra Tylenol or two because your headache was REALLY bad? These are both examples of non-adherence or non-compliance to medications. If one of these situations sounds familiar you are not alone. It is estimated that 50% of people taking medications do not adhere to taking them as directed.

Now imagine you have a life-threatening chronic condition that is only kept in-check by a strict medication regime. Imagine that in order to treat this life-threatening condition you have to take multiple medications, maybe up to 15 a day. Staying compliant just got a little more complicated. It's easy to see how people can fall behind on taking their drugs as directed.

Some of the top reasons why people don't take their drugs (not necessarily in order):
1. They forget.
2. They never get them filled or refilled.
3. They don't like the side effects.
4. They don't see the effects.
5. They're not sure of why they are taking the medication in the first place.
6. They can't open the containers, swallow the drug, read the instructions, etc.
7. They can't afford the drug.
8. The regimen is too complicated.

It is important that we as health professionals work hard to make sure our patients adhere to their medications. Many of the reasons people stop taking their drugs are easily resolved through education and a little extra effort on our part. Throughout this blog, we'll be exploring more reasons why people don't adhere to their medications and how we as health professionals can assist in helping people maintain their medication therapies.

For a good resource on managing medications visit the National Council for Patient Information and Education.