Adherence to prescribed medication is an essential component of diabetes management to obtain optimal outcomes. Understanding the relationship between medication adherence and ethnicity is key to optimising treatment for all people with different chronic illnesses, including those with diabetes. The aim of this review is to examine whether the adherence to antidiabetic medications differed by ethnicity among people with diabetes.

The classification of patients as adherent or non-adherent to medications is typically based on an arbitrary threshold for the proportion of prescribed doses taken. Here, we define a patient as pharmacokinetically adherent if the serum drug levels resulting from his/her pattern of medication-taking behavior remained within the therapeutic range.

Unpaid carers are an increasing proportion of the UK population. One of the many ways in which they help those they care for is assisting with medication adherence. Many older adults have medicines dispensed in pharmacy-filled multi-compartment medication compliance aids (pMCAs). However, evidence suggests that pMCAs may increase medication-related harm, and little is known about the interaction between the user, medication adherence systems and the carer.

Medication adherence in glaucoma patients remains sub-par despite proven benefits of regular administration. The objective was to analyze medication adherence before and after lifestyle counseling in patients with ocular hypertension (OHT) or primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) (mild, moderate, severe).

Poor adherence to medication regimens and medical record inconsistencies result in incomplete knowledge of medication therapy in polypharmacy patients. By quantitatively identifying medications in the blood of patients and reconciling detected medications with the medical record, we have defined the severity of this knowledge gap and created a path toward optimizing medication therapy.

Over the last 20 years, there have been marked improvements in the availability of effective medications for rheumatic conditions such as gout, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which have led to a reduction in disease flares and the risk of re-fracture in osteoporosis, and the slowing of disease progression in RA. However, medication adherence remains suboptimal, as treatment regimens can be complex and difficult to continue long term. Many trials have been conducted to improve adherence to medication. Core domains, which are the outcomes of most relevance to patients and clinicians, are a pivotal component of any trial. These core domains should be measured consistently, so that all relevant trials can be combined in systematic reviews and meta-analyses to reach conclusions that are more valid. Failure to do this severely limits the potential for trial-based evidence to inform decisions on how to support medication adherence. The Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) - Interventions for Medication Adherence study by the OMERACT-Adherence Group aims to develop a core domain set for interventions that aim to support medication adherence in rheumatology.

This systematic review examined the reliability and validity of the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (MMAS-8), which has been widely used to assess patient medication adherence in clinical research and medical practice.

People with HIV/AIDS require treatment with antiretrovirals (ARV) to reduce the amount of HIV virus in the body so it does not enter the AIDS stage, while people with AIDS require ARV treatment to prevent opportunistic infections with various complications.

Non-adherence to oral maintenance therapy in adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a significant healthcare problem. Knowledge of the prescribed medication can increase medication adherence. We aimed to investigate the relationship between medication adherence and disease-related knowledge of pediatric and adolescent patients with IBD.

To determine if a targeted and tailored intervention based on a discussion informed by validated adherence scales will improve medication adherence.

Pharmaceutical care requires a patient-centered approach, focusing on the ability of patients to understand drug-related information and follow the instructions delivered by pharmacists as well as other health-care providers included in the circle of care. With the goal of ensuring the prescribed use of medications, called medication adherence, health-care providers have to consider many risk factors such as geography (culture), social economic status, age, and low literacy that may predispose patients to non-adherence, and considerations have to be made for chronic patients living with life-long disease states. The aim of this review is to provide a balanced and comprehensive review outlining a number of different medication counselling and education approaches that have been used to try to improve medication adherence and health outcomes with the use of clear and concise graphic illustrations-called pictograms. By highlighting the current landscape of the general use and efficacy of pharmaceutical pictograms to aid in the knowledge and recall of drug-related information, as well as outlining specific medication adherence outcomes with pharmaceutical pictograms in chronic patients, the current review describes the need for health-care providers to move beyond the traditional didactic methods of oral and verbal communication with patients regarding medication-taking behavior.

This study assesses the feasibility of using machine learning methods such as Random Forests (RF), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Self-Organizing Feature Maps (SOM) to identify and determine factors associated with hypertensive patients' adherence levels. Hypertension is the medical term for systolic and diastolic blood pressure higher than 140/90 mmHg. A conventional medication adherence scale was used to identify patients' adherence to their prescribed medication. Using machine learning applications to predict precise numeric adherence scores in hypertensive patients has not yet been reported in the literature.

Medication adherence impacts health outcomes. Healthcare organisations implementing system-level interventions have potential for greater spread and sustainability than individual-level interventions. Within the integrated US Veterans Health Administration, a multidisciplinary team developed and evaluated a pilot quality improvement programme to assess the feasibility of automatic mailed prescription refills for patients with diabetes and low medication adherence (assessed by medication possession ratio <80%).

BACKGROUND: There are limited data that evaluate how pharmacists who are integrated within primary care clinics influence proportion of days covered (PDC) and Part D star ratings for the 3 adherence measures: diabetes, hypertension (renin-angiotensin-system antagonists), and cholesterol (statin) medications. OBJECTIVE: To assess the difference in percentage of beneficiaries with a prescription with a PDC of 80% or higher in the adherence prioritization group versus control group. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted that collected data from 2019 monthly and end-of-year files provided by Humana Medicare Advantage (MA) Part D for patients attributed to a Banner Medical Group (BMG) primary care provider who filled at least 1 prescription for a medication included in any of the medication adherence classes. The Banner Pharmacy Services population health team prioritized beneficiaries and provided worklists to pharmacists embedded in the BMG primary care clinics in Colorado. The pharmacists performed telephonic outreach, which included patient education, along with leveraging of pharmacist-provider collaborative practice agreements to address barriers, facilitate refills, and convert prescriptions to 90-day supply and mail order. Outreach status was tracked. Colorado patients reached at least once during the study time frame served as the adherence prioritization group, while Arizona patients were propensity score matched and served as the control group. We evaluated the effects of contact with the pharmacist on adherence between the adherence prioritization and control groups with PDC as a binary variable (≥ 80% vs. not) and a continuous variable (0%-100%). Analysis with PDC as a binary variable was also completed for the entire Humana MA Part D cohort. RESULTS: A total of 881 unique patients with prescriptions that fell into one of the medication adherence classes were included in the analysis-294 in the adherence prioritization group and 587 in the control group. Baseline demographics were well balanced between groups. Across the 3 medication classes, the adherence prioritization group had a higher percentage of patients with PDC of 80% or higher (71.0%) versus the matched control group (62.3%), a difference of 8.6% (95% CI = 3.47-13.82, P < 0.001). End-of-year data for the adherence prioritization population shows the percentage of patients who passed the medication adherence measure for diabetes, hypertension, and cholesterol was 88%, 89%, and 89%, respectively, while in the control population passing rates were 85%, 88%, and 87%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacist-driven interventions can have a meaningful effect on PDC for medication adherence and can ultimately affect star rating measures. Since 2019 data are used for 2021 star rating measures, even small numerical differences as seen in this study may account for the difference between a 4- or 5-star rating. Moving the needle in the right direction can be significant, since the cut point is yet to be determined. DISCLOSURES: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Rinehart, Rice, and Collins are employed by Banner Health but received no specific financial incentives or otherwise related to this research and manuscript. Glover is employed by Pfizer, which had no role in this study. The authors have no other relevant declarations of interest to disclose. This study was presented as a platform presentation at the Southwestern States Residency Conference, June 2020, Phoenix, AZ.

We aimed to explore the current status of medication adherence, safety awareness and practice among patients with lung cancer.

We conducted a mediation analysis of the provider team's role in changes to chronic condition medication adherence among cancer survivors.

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationships between selected psychological features and adherence to therapy in oncological patients.

Use of cardiovascular medication has increased over time, especially for primary and secondary prevention, with polypharmacy common.

Background: The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to estimate medication adherence in hypertensive patients aged ≥60 years and to explore potential determinants of adherence with antihypertensive treatment in this age group. Methods: A systematic search of the PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar using the Cochrane guidelines was performed. The analysis included articles published between 1 January 2000 and 30 June 2018. The patients were considered adherent if they scored ≥6 pts. on the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) or ≥3 pts. on the Morisky Green Levine Medication Adherence Scale (MGL). If available, also odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for determinants of medication adherence were recorded. Results: Thirteen studies including a total of 5,247 patients were available for the meta-analysis. The pooled percentage of adherence was 68.86% (95% CI: 57.80-79.92%). Subgroup analysis did not demonstrate a significant difference in the adherence measured with the MMAS-8 and the MGL (68.31 vs. 70.39%, P = 0.773). The adherence of patients from Western countries (Europe, United States) turned out to be significantly higher than in other patients (83.87 vs. 54.30%, P = 0.004). The significant determinants of better adherence identified in more than one study were older age, retirement/unemployment, duration of hypertension >10 years, and a lower number of prescribed drugs. Conclusion: Medication adherence in the oldest old hypertensive patients seems to be higher than in younger persons. Adherence in older persons was associated with age, socioeconomic status, and therapy-related factors.

The detection and analysis of cases of low medication adherence is important for helping to control tuberculosis (TB). The purpose of this study was to detect low adherence in rural TB patients by using the eight-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale of Chinese version (C-MMAS-8) and to further analyze the adherence-related variables. A total of 358 rural TB patients recruited through multi-stage randomized sampling participated in the survey. Data were collected by the use of interviewer-led questionnaires. First, the reliability and validity of the C-MMAS-8 were determined. Second, the adherence level was assessed, and factors related to low adherence were analyzed by using Pearson's chi-square test and then in multiple logistic regression model. Finally, the prediction of the logistic model was assessed with Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. The C-MMAS-8 could be used to detect low adherence in TB patients with good reliability and validity. By using the referred cutoff points of MMAS-8, it was found that more than one-third of the participants had low medication adherence. Further analysis revealed the variables of being older, a longer treatment time, and being depressive were significantly related to low adherence. The ROC of the model was assessed as good using the cutoff point. We conclude that appropriately tailored strategies are needed for health-care providers to help rural TB patients cope with low medication adherence.