title: Adherence to prescription medications among medical professionals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We evaluated adherence to medication usage by health care professionals to estimate the expected upper limit of adherence among the general population.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a self-administered survey, physicians and nurses were asked about their use of prescribed medications for acute and chronic illnesses. The settings were a teaching hospital, employee health service, medical college, and educational conferences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 435 respondents, 301 physicians and nurses had medications prescribed for acute and/or chronic illnesses within 2 years of the survey. Of 610 prescribed medications, > or =80% were taken as prescribed, with a 77% compliance rate for short-term medications and 84% for long-term medications. Older age was associated with better adherence, whereas a greater number of doses per day was associated with poorer adherence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Approximately 80% of respondents reported properly taking prescription medications > or =80% of the time. Given the nature of the study population, it is unlikely that a nonclinical trial population will consistently achieve better adherence without specific interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Westchester Medical Center and New York Medical College, Valhalla 10595, USA.
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Corda
authors.forename: H B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Horowitz
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000188:drug therapy; D003625:Data Collection; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010820:Physicians