title: Adherence to medicines and self-management of epilepsy: a community-based study.
abstract: This community-based survey of people with epilepsy who were divided into adherent and non-adherent groups used validated scales to determine factors associated with medicine non-adherence and self-management of epilepsy to identify those people at risk of poor self-management behavior or medicines non-adherence. Using demographic characteristics, it is possible to identify those people at risk during a regular epilepsy review. Adults with epilepsy were identified from general practices using clinical and drug searches with the diagnosis confirmed by case notes analysis. Four hundred thirty-eight people with epilepsy were divided into adherent and non-adherent groups using medication records and self-report of non-adherent behavior. Data were also collected on patient demographics, seizure activity and self-management behavior. Low self-management scores and recent seizures were associated with non-adherence. Young adults, those in education or employment, those living with others and those who had recent seizures were more likely to have low self-management scores.
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Primary Medical Care, University of Sheffield, UK. henry.smithson@sheffield.ac.uk
authors.forename: W Henry
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Smithson
authors.forename: Debbie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hukins
authors.forename: Janice M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Buelow
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Allgar
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dickson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055118:Medication Adherence; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult