Journal of Pharmaceutical Care & Health Systems
Open Access

Insights on Patient Medication Adherence: Importance in Patients Outcomes

Enat Sigev^{* *}Correspondence: Enat Sigev, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia, Email:

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Description

The concepts of "Medication Adherence" and "continuing to take prescribed medication" generally relate to whether or not individuals take the medicines as directed (e.g., twice daily). Medication Non-Adherence is becoming more and more of a worry for payers, healthcare systems, and doctors because to rising evidence that it is common and linked to unfavorable outcomes and increased costs of care. As of right now, standard clinical practice rarely measures patient medication adherence or uses treatments to increase adherence. The current report aims to tackle several approaches for gauging adherence, the frequency of nonadherence to medication, the correlation between nonadherence and results, the causes of nonadherence, and lastly, strategies to enhance medication adherence.

According to WHO data, in developed nations, the average adherence rate across patients with chronic illnesses is just 50%. Given that pharmaceutical nonadherence results in adverse health effects and higher healthcare costs, this is seen as a serious public health concern. Therefore, increasing medication adherence is essential, as evidenced by numerous studies that show treatments can raise drug adherence. Understanding the extent of the problem is important when developing ways to increase medication adherence. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of overarching direction to help researchers and medical practitioners select the right instruments to investigate medication adherence levels and the underlying causes of this issue so that they may plan follow-up actions.

An important aspect for assessing the effectiveness of treatment is adherence to therapies. Adherence failure is a severe issue that impacts the patient as well as the healthcare system. Patients who fail to utilize their medications as prescribed have significant degradation of their health illness, death, and greater healthcare costs. There are certainly a lot of variables that influence adherence. Adherence barriers may be attributed to interactions between patient, provider, and health system issues. To increase drug adherence, it will be important to identify the unique obstacles that each patient has and implement appropriate strategies to get beyond them. A major part of the everyday work of health care providers like doctors, pharmacists, and nurses is to increase patient medication adherence.

The World Health Organization defines medication adherence as "the extent to which an individual's behavior aligns with the established recommendations from a healthcare provider." Even though they are sometimes used interchangeably, compliance and adherence are not the same. The degree in which a patient follows the prescriber's instructions is known as compliance. Although adherence denotes that the individual and doctor work together to enhance the patient's health by incorporating the doctor's medical advice with the patient's values, way of life, and preferred course of care, compliance suggests that the patient submits to the doctor's authority.

Another kind of non-adherence is known as non-persistency, where people choose to quit taking a prescription after beginning it on their own initiative without consulting a healthcare provider first. Intentional non-perseverance is uncommon; instead, it results from misunderstandings between patients and clinicians on treatment goals. Unintentional nonadherence results from patients' inability to carry out their decisions to adhere to treatment recommendations due to the capacity and limited resources (e.g., difficulties getting prescriptions filled, high costs, conflicting demands, etc.). Individual constraints can also play a role (e.g., poor inhaler technique, difficulties remembering doses, etc.). On the other hand, intentional non-adherence results from patients' desires, attitudes, and beliefs that affect their desire to start and stick with the treatment plan. Non-conforming non-adherence refers to a third category of non-adherence that encompasses a range of medication-related behaviors that are not taken as directed. These behaviors might include missing doses, taking medications at the wrong time or dose, or even taking more than is recommended.

The percentage of a patient's prescribed medicine dosages that are actually taken over a given period of time is known as the rate of adherence. The percentage of non-adherence varies greatly; it has been reported to be as low as 10% and as high as 92% in various studies. A thorough analysis of the literature shows that the average adherence to therapy in wealthy nations is 50%. About half of the non-adherence is deliberate, and the other half results from patients not realizing they fail to take their prescriptions as directed or from the regimen being too complicated. When it comes to individuals with acute diseases, adherence rates are usually higher than those with ongoing illnesses. Research indicates that less than half of the medications given for chronic illnesses are actually used by patients. Non-adherence has several negative effects, including pharmaceutical waste, illness progression, decreased functional abilities, a worse quality of life, and a higher need for medical services such hospital stays, visits, and admissions. Numerous studies support the finding that noncompliance with prescribed regimens can have major health consequences, as demonstrated by economic studies.

An individual accomplished an analysis which revealed that patients with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol levels, elevated blood pressure, or congestive cardiac failure who did not follow their prescribed therapy had a risk of hospitalization that was more than twice as high as the general population. Research done on individuals with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has demonstrated that emergency hospitalization is caused by noncompliance with medication regimens and disease management. Medication Non-Adherence can have detrimental effects on the patient, the physician, the provider, and even researchers in medicine who are trying to determine the medication's usefulness for the intended demographic.