title: Medication Adherence Measures: An Overview.
abstract: WHO reported that adherence among patients with chronic diseases averages only 50% in developed countries. This is recognized as a significant public health issue, since medication nonadherence leads to poor health outcomes and increased healthcare costs. Improving medication adherence is, therefore, crucial and revealed on many studies, suggesting interventions can improve medication adherence. One significant aspect of the strategies to improve medication adherence is to understand its magnitude. However, there is a lack of general guidance for researchers and healthcare professionals to choose the appropriate tools that can explore the extent of medication adherence and the reasons behind this problem in order to orchestrate subsequent interventions. This paper reviews both subjective and objective medication adherence measures, including direct measures, those involving secondary database analysis, electronic medication packaging (EMP) devices, pill count, and clinician assessments and self-report. Subjective measures generally provide explanations for patient's nonadherence whereas objective measures contribute to a more precise record of patient's medication-taking behavior. While choosing a suitable approach, researchers and healthcare professionals should balance the reliability and practicality, especially cost effectiveness, for their purpose. Meanwhile, because a perfect measure does not exist, a multimeasure approach seems to be the best solution currently.
authors.affiliation: UCL School of Pharmacy, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, UK.
authors.forename: Wai Yin
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.affiliation: Department of Drug Sciences, Laboratory of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fresco
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000191:economics; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D055118:Medication Adherence