I was very pleased to see this new study about adherence. I’ve always been an advocate of cost-savings techniques when it comes to prescription drugs (such as taking a drug more times per day) that make treatment more affordable for those patients who struggle with high drug costs.
The argument against this by many in healthcare was that it would lead to lower adherence (adherence is when patients take their medicine exactly as the doctor prescribes them). But this study supports our notion that we can help people save money without decreasing the quality of care – or affecting patients’ adherence.
New Study Suggests Number Of Pills Not A Factor When It Comes To Daily Adherence To Medication There is no correlation between the daily number of pills a patient is prescribed to take and how well a patient will adhere to a dosing regimen, suggests a new study presented recently at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) held in San Diego (April 11-14). The large-scale study looked at patients taking a variety of high blood pressure medicines, specifically calcium channel blockers (CCBs), and provides more supportive evidence that adherence to prescribed medication is influenced by a multitude of factors. The study specifically examined dosing regimen to see if there was a relationship between that factor and adherence in patients with a co-payment of at least $20.
Poor adherence to medication is a recognized medical problem in the U.S., costing an estimated $100 billion a year.(I) Previous studies have found that issues contributing to poor adherence to medication are multifactorial.(II) According to the study's lead author, Diana Brixner, Ph.D., University of Utah Pharmacotherapy Outcomes Research Center, these new data can help emphasize to health care providers the importance of discussing various components of medication adherence with patients with chronic illnesses…
Read the full article about adherence.
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