Primary Healthcare

Biography

Biography: Brendan Mitchell

Abstract

Background: The rate of medication non-adherence has been consistently reported to be between 20-50%. The majority of available data comes from international studies, and we hypothesized that a similar rate of adherence may be observed in Australian patients. Aims: To determine the rate of adherence to medications after discharge from acute general medical hospital admission, and identify factors that may be associated with non-adherence. Methods: A prospective cohort study of 68 patients, comparing admission and discharge medication regimens to self-reported regimens 30-40 days after discharge from hospital. Patients were followed up via telephone call and univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression used to determine patient factors associated with non-adherence. Results: A total of 27 of 68 patients (39.7%) were non-adherent to one or more regular medications at follow up. Intentional and unintentional non-adherence contributed equally to non-adherence. Using multivariate analysis, presence of a carer responsible for medications was associated with significantly lower non-adherence (OR 0.20 (0.05-0.83), p=0.027) when adjusted for age, comorbidities, chemist blister pack and total number of discharge medications. Conclusions: Non-adherence to prescription medications is suboptimal, and consistent with previous overseas studies. Having a carer responsible for medications is associated with significantly lower rates of non-adherence. Understanding patient’s preferences and involving them in their healthcare may reduce intentional non-adherence.