By Aine Cryts
A new study calls into question long-held assumptions about medication adherence. Research conducted at Universidad Miguel Hernández in Elche, Spain, found that just because patients pick up their prescriptions at pharmacies doesn't mean they actually take them as prescribed, according to a study announcement.
The study looked at 602 hypertension patients--all of whom picked up their prescriptions at a pharmacy. Thirty-two percent of these patients didn't in fact take the medication, according to researchers, who based their findings on physical testing in the pharmacy and questionnaires. Even more troubling, 15 percent of patients had unhealthy blood pressures--and that's after months of picking up their hypertension medication.
One way to improve adherence, researchers said, is for pharmacists to reassure patients that changes to the appearance of the pills they take won't impact treatment--or even if there is an impact, that they should expect similar outcomes.
When patients don't take their medications as prescribed it's one of the major causes of treatment failure. In addition, there are "tremendous costs to the health service and to society as a whole," according to researchers.
Researchers said the findings indicate the need for pharmacists to play a larger role in patient care and including patients in the conversation.
Here in the United States, researchers have found that as many as 50 percent of patients don't take their medications as prescribed. Prescribing generic drugs can increase the chances that patients will be adherent. Patients' greater adherence is largely because of brand-name drugs' higher out-of-pocket costs. Case in point: A study of 90,000 Medicare patients who were prescribed a generic statin were 6 percent more adherent than those who received a brand-name version of the drug, as previously reported by FiercePracticeManagement.
To learn more:
- read the study announcement