Naslov
Patients’ Adherence to Prescribed Medication

Autori
Čulig, Josip

Izvornik
Journal of applied health sciences (1849-8361) 4 (2018), 1; 7-14

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, ostalo

Ključne riječi
adherence, compliance, persistence, questionnaire, long-term medication, pharmacist-patient relationship, Zagreb

Sažetak
The objective of the Zagreb study was to assess the extent of adherence among the outpatients with long-term medication.MethodsPatients with chronic diseases were interviewed during their visit to a public pharmacy. Their anonymity was guaranteed. The questionnaire was standardized and approved by the Ethical Committee. 635 questionnaires were collected in total (2000 were distributed). The study design was cross-sectional. The evaluation of pharma-cist-patient relationships was also included in the study. 84 pharmacists volunteered to participate in the study.ResultsThe average adherence to long-term medication was 41.7%. It was even lower in case of hypertensive pa-tients (39%). The most frequent reasons for non-adher-ence were forgetfulness (60%), being away from home (45.4%), running out of pills (44.4%), inconvenient time schedule (40.9%), polypharmacy (39.5%), lack of the prescribed brand in the pharmacy (35.9%), feeling well (35.9%), and fear of side effects (29.6%).The pharma-cist-patient relationships were seen differently on each side (p<0.05 in 5 of 8 questions). Only 14.3% of inter-viewed pharmacists asked patients to repeat the advice out loud, i.e. how to take the prescribed medicine. ConclusionPatients’ adherence to long-term medication is low in Zagreb. The strategy for interventions to change patients’ behaviour towards prescribed medication should be widely established. The role of pharmacists could be explored more.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Kliničke medicinske znanosti, Javno zdravstvo i zdravstvena zaštita

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