RPS Conference 2010, Abstracts 2010 - Royal Pharmaceutical Society

84
Patient medication adherence: a pilot study in Poland
Agnieszka Skotnicka 1,2 , Marcin Skotnicki 3,4 , Magdalena Waszyk-nowaczyk 4 , Izabela
Miechowicz 5 , Janina lulek 4 , Edmund Grzeskowiak 2
1 Department of Pharmacy, The James Cook University Hospital,, TS4 3BW Middlesbrough,
United Kingdom, 2 Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Biopharmacy, Poznan University of
Medical Sciences,, 61-701 Poznan, Poland, 3 Community Pharmacy, TS24 0XT Hartlepool,
United Kingdom, 4 Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Poznan University of Medical
Sciences, 61-701 Poznan, Poland, 5 Department of Computer Science and Statistics, Poznan
University of Medical Sciences, 61-701 Poznan, Poland
Focal Points:
• The aim of the study was to examine adherence to medication among patients
in Poland. The data were collected using patient self-report questionnaire.
• Overall medication non-adherence is relatively high (83.1%).
• The attention of the pharmacist should be focused on improving patient
medication adherence.
Introduction Medication prescribing is the most common medical intervention in developed
countries. Assuming the correct drug for the condition has been prescribed one of the most
important factor contributing to pharmacotherapy effectiveness is adherence to medication.
Adherence to treatment regimens is essential to achieve optimal disease management
particularly in chronic conditions, where non-adherence to medical treatments leads to worse
health outcomes, increased number of clinic visits, increased healthcare expenditures and even
early deaths [1] . The aim of the study was to examine adherence to medication among patients in
Poland.
Method A cross-sectional study was conducted in the community pharmacy settings in Gorzow
Wielkopolski, Poland between August and December 2009. A total of 89 randomly selected
patients, of whom 66.3% (59) were females and 33.7% (30) were males, were investigated.
Most of recruited patients (84.3%, 75) were taking prescription medicines for at least one year.
The medication adherence was measured using structured thirteen-item patient questionnaire.
The questionnaire enabled to gather demographic data, number of medication taken and
frequency of medication non-adherence as well as factors leading to non-adherence. To
developed questionnaire modified Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS) was added [2] .
MMAS measured both intentional and non-intentional non-adherence based on forgetfulness,
carelessness, stopping medication when feeling better or worse. The scale was scored 1 for
each “yes” response with a possible total score ranging from 0 (good adherence), 1-2 (medium
adherence) and 3-4 (poor adherence). Ethical approval was not required for this study.
Results Overall medication non-adherence was reported by 83.1% (74) of patients (40.4% (36)
poor adherence, 42.7% (38) medium adherence). 53.9% (48) of respondents reported that they
forgot to take their medication, 46.0% (41) reported being careless about taking their
medication, 36.0% (32) reported that they stopped taking their medication when they felt better
and 76.4% (68) reported that they stopped taking their medication when they felt worse. Other
reasons for non-adherence reported by patients were: cost of medication (9.0%, 8), lack of
understanding how medicines should be used (3.4%, 3), lack of faith in treatment (2.3%, 2). We
found that more males stop taking medication when they feeling good in comparison to females
(53.3% (16), 28.1% (16), respectively; p