Medication adherence : patient education, communication and behaviour

Abstract

Medication adherence usually refers to whether patients take their medications as prescribed, as well as whether they continue to take a prescribed medication. Medication non-adherence is a growing concern to pharmacists, healthcare systems, and other stakeholders (e.g. payers) because of mounting evidence that it is prevalent and associated with adverse outcomes and higher costs of care. To date, measurement of patient medication adherence and use of interventions to improve adherence are rare in routine clinical practice. The goals of this article are to address (1) the reasons for non-adherence, (2) the prevalence of medication non-adherence, (3) the consequences of non-adherence, (4) patient behaviour with respect to taking medications and finally, (5) interventions to improve medication adherence.