BACKGROUND

Medication compliance contributes to preventing significant morbidities, such as stroke, among hypertensive patients.

This study aimed to examine the factors affecting hypertensive patients' medication compliance in Sambag II, Cebu City.

This study is an observational cross-sectional study. The study was conducted in Barangay Sambag II of Cebu City and involved 170 random, voluntary, self-reporting hypertensive patients. The Tao Yamane formula was used to determine the sample size. An interviewer-guided survey questionnaire was utilized to collect the data for the pilot study. The data were analyzed using Cronbach’s Alpha Test for internal consistency and reliability.

Three factors were shown to influence compliance with antihypertensive medications. These are the source of medication, access to medication, and symptoms experienced before intake of anti-hypertensive medications. A factor that significantly affects compliance is the source of medication, wherein hypertensive patients prefer medications from retail pharmacies compared to the free medications supplied by the local health center.

Residents of Sambag II, Cebu City preferred medications from retail pharmacies over the free medications provided by the local health center. Local health units may use this information to implement information drugs regarding the efficacy of medications provided by government agencies. Further studies are recommended to use subgroup analysis on factors influencing compliance and non-compliance to anti-hypertensive medicines.

OBJECTIVE: In view of the facts that education about diseases and realization of the need for drugs can improve compliance of the patients, we assessed the knowledge about drugs and medication compliance in psychiatric outpatients. In addition, we investigated factors that influence patients' compliance to develop a model of medication compliance. METHODS: One-hundred twelve male and eighty female psychiatric outpatient were asked about drug information using questionnaires. We developed a model that predicts medication compliance using chi square tests and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: More than a hart of the patients knew at least one of the names and the effects of the drugs they had taken, but many of them didn't know the side effects of drugs. About eighty percent of the patients showed good compliance. Knowledge of side effects, belief in the benefits of drugs, and level of education could predict medication compliance reliably. CONCLUSIONS: Because education level could not be managed by physician, we could enhance compliance through education about drug side effects and benefits of medications.
Compliance ; Education ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Medication Adherence* ; Outpatients* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: It has been reported in several for factors on the drug compliance of patients, number of drug being taken, symptom, and pharmaceutical dosage form. However, Studies of drug compliance by dosing methodologies of tamsulosin, finasteride combination therapy and symptom relief for benign prostatic hyperplasia has not been performed. Therefore, we studied for symptom and differences in medication adherence in method of administration of tamsulosin, finasteride combination therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The groups were consisted in need of combination therapy of tamsulosin, finasteride on benign prostatic hyperplasia, one had packaged both drugs together (Group A, n=30) and the other were individually packaged both agents (Group B, n=30). International Prostatic Symptom Score (IPSS) were checked on first, 4weeks, and 8weeks. The evaluation was carried out of medicine compliance by checking the number of drugs 4weeks-interval. which was every 4weeks during 8weeks. RESULTS: The properties other than the PSA in both groups, there was no statistically significant differences between patients. In first 4weeks, drug compliance of each Group A and B had tamsulosin 82.6%, 93.3% (p=0.033), finasteride 80.1%, 93.3% (p=0.042), and last 4weeks tamsulosin 80.6%, 93.7% (p=0.013), finasteride 79.5%, 93.7% (p=0.002) were checked. Group C, D had 81.4%, 96.4% (p=0.021) on 4weeks, 80.6%, 97.2% (p=0.011) on 8weeks. CONCLUSIONS: For co-administration of finasteride and tamsulosin are required in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia, in order to enhance drug compliance, both tablets have to prescript together in one package to be taken at one time is useful.
Compliance ; Dosage Forms ; Finasteride* ; Humans ; Medication Adherence* ; Prostatic Hyperplasia* ; Tablets

Depressive disorder is a chronic disabling condition with recurrent episodes. Medication noncompliance is a significant problem for effective management of depressive disorder. However, compliance with antidepressant medication is poor. There are difficulties in assessing compliance accurately. Various methods for assessing compliance are in use. A patient's compliance with antidepressant may be affected by many factors including the clinical characteristics of depression, pharmacologic properties of antidepressants, patients' characteristics, accessibility treatment, and doctor-patient relationships. For enhancing the treatment compliance, psychotherapeutic considerations in patient-therapist relationship are needed.
Antidepressive Agents ; Compliance ; Depression ; Depressive Disorder ; Medication Adherence

BACKGROUND: Although bisphosphonate is effective for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, poor medication compliance is a key-limiting factor. We determined whether alarm clock could improve compliance with weekly bisphosphonate in patients with osteoporosis, by comparing with age- and gender-matched control group. METHODS: Fifty patients with osteoporosis were recruited and participated in alarm clock group. Patients were asked to take orally weekly risedronate for 1 year, and received alarm clock to inform the time of taking oral bisphosphonate weekly. Using the propensity score matching with age and gender, 50 patients were identified from patients with osteoporosis medication. We compared the compliance with bisphosphonate using medication possession ratio (MPR) between two groups. RESULTS: Although there was no significant difference of baseline characteristics between both groups, the mean MPR (0.80±0.33) of alarm clock group was higher than that (0.56±0.34) of control group (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Alarming could improve the compliance with weekly oral bisphosphonate in patients with osteoporosis.
Compliance* ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Osteoporosis* ; Patient Compliance ; Propensity Score ; Risedronate Sodium

"All-causes discontinuation" refers to discontinuation of treatment for any reason, and medication adherence is an important component of this measure. Similar to our previous results, we found that almost 30% of patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) discontinue medication in the first 9 months of treatment, a finding that has important implications for long-term outcomes. Many newer second-generation antipsychotics have not been studied in FEP. The self-reported Drug Attitude Inventory may help identify patients at heightened risk for medication discontinuation. In addition to vigilant monitoring for and adequate treatment of psychopathology and medication side effects, Relapse Prevention Therapy and the use of long-acting injectable agents may be effective interventions decrease discontinuation rates in FEP. There is currently no consensus on how long a patient should remain on an antipsychotic medication following remission of FEP. Studies are needed to identify predictors of which patients in remission from FEP are less likely to relapse when medication is discontinued. Taken together, our findings presented here underscore the importance of addressing medication discontinuation both as a means of preventing long-term morbidity and enhancing remission and functional recovery in FEP.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Consensus ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Patient Compliance ; Polytetrafluoroethylene ; Psychopathology ; Psychotic Disorders ; Recurrence ; Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE: Recommended dosage of quetiapine for patients with schizophrenia is from 150 mg to 750 mg, which is based on randomized controlled study. But there are trends of increasing quetiapine dosage in clinical practice. Therefore, we evaluated the clinical aspect of schizophrenic patients who took quetiapine by naturalistic non-intervention study. METHODS: Schizophrenia outpatients in 88 mental hospitals were selected and 170 psychiatrists evaluated Clinical Global Impressions Scale for Severity (CGI-S) before starting quetiapine medication and CGI-S, Clinical Global Impressions Scale for Improvement (CGI-I), quetiapine dosage and medication compliance at 6 weeks after starting quetiapine medication. Overall efficacy and difference of efficacy between drug-naive patients and medication-switch patients were evaluated. We clustered the patients into 4 groups by using cluster analysis with three variables such as quetiapine dose at week 6, baseline CGI-S, and end-point CGI-S. We compared clinical aspect of each cluster with analysis of variance. RESULTS: 841 patients were enrolled. Efficacy of quetiapine was replicated, and improvement rate defined as CGI-I < or =2 was 55.9%. Drug-naive patients show more improvement in CGI-I than medication-switch patients, and efficacy for patients with insufficient treatment was also reported. Dosage for each clustered group was 25-350 mg, 400-500 mg, 600-700 mg and 750-1,500 mg. 750-1,500 mg group shows more decrease in CGI-S than 400-500 mg group and 600-700 mg group. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that there is a cluster of patients who take more benefits in reducing symptoms and show more compliance in high-dose quetiapine.
Cluster Analysis ; Compliance ; Dibenzothiazepines ; Hospitals, Psychiatric ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Outpatients ; Psychiatry ; Schizophrenia ; Quetiapine Fumarate

PURPOSE: Good compliance with an anticonvulsant medication regimen is essential for the successful management of epilepsy. However, pediatric compliance with anticonvulsant therapy did not well be studied. The aim of this study was to identify the following key in noncompliance in pediatric out patients receiving anticonvulsant therapy determining factors. METHODS: Eighty-one epileptic outpatients under fifteen years of age with anticonvulsant therapy from the pediatric department of Kang-Dong Sacred Heart Hospital was enrolled for the study. Variables such as age, sex ratio, the reason of poor compliance, medication regimen and seizure frequency were extracted from each patients'medical record. RESULTS: Up to 37% of the patients was labeled as a poor compliant group. Compliance was low at the under 6 year and over 13 year-old patient group, and was also low for those who hadn't had a seizure in a while and for those who had a low seizure rate since last year. The mean plasma level of anticonvulsants was higher in the good compliant group than in the poor compliant group. The most reported obstacle to good compliance was forgetfulness. Side effect and drug rejection were also reported. CONCLUSION: To the high risk group of poor compliance, reminding, decreasing side effects, making simple administration adjustments have been reported to be useful in promoting compliance with medication regimens.
Adolescent ; Anticonvulsants ; Child* ; Compliance* ; Epilepsy ; Heart ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Outpatients ; Plasma ; Seizures ; Sex Ratio

BACKGROUND/AIMS: It is very important that people living with HIV (PLWH) maintain 95% medication adherence to increase health-related quality of life and prevent transmitting HIV. In this study, we analyzed factors influencing medication adherence among PLWH and used the basic data for practical interventions to increase medication adherence. METHODS: A total of 190 PLWH, who were taking highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) from nine hospitals in South Korea, were included. The data were collected by self-administered questionnaire between April 1 and June 31, 2014. RESULTS: About 92% of the subjects were male and 72.9% of the subjects belonged to the high compliance group. Medication-taking self-efficacy was significantly related to compliance. Efficacy expectancy, which is a subscale of medication-taking self-efficacy, indicated that a score of 1 point higher on a 10-point scale increased compliance by 2.63 times. CONCLUSIONS: Medication adherence is associated with increased medication-taking self-efficacy. Therefore, it is necessary to promote self-efficacy to improve compliance considering the infection period and adverse reactions to HAART among PLWH.
Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active ; Compliance ; HIV* ; Humans* ; Korea ; Male ; Medication Adherence* ; Quality of Life ; Self Efficacy

PURPOSE: To assess glaucoma medication compliance and its causative factors in glaucoma patients. METHODS: This study was performed via a structured questionnaire given to 415 glaucoma patients using eye drops for glaucoma treatment. The degree of compliance was evaluated by using compliance score (range, 0-100) which was calculated based on the number of days of missing medication per month. The degree of symptoms and complications related to glaucoma and its medication were investigated using the Glaucoma Symptom Scale (GSS). The effect of sex, age, treatment duration, knowledge about the glaucoma medication, number of eye drops, class of glaucoma medication, family support for eye drop use, and GSS on glaucoma medication compliance was assessed. RESULTS: The most frequently found number of days of missing medication per month was one to four (43.4%). The most common reason for missing medication was forgetfulness (80.5%), followed by busy daily schedule (18.4%) and complications of medication (1.1%). Compliance score ranged from 10.0 to 100.0 (median value, 90.0). Older age, longer duration of treatment, higher knowledge about the glaucoma medication, and the presence of family support was significantly associated with a higher compliance score (p < 0.05). Sex, number and class of eye drops, and GSS did not significantly affect compliance score. CONCLUSIONS: Age, treatment duration, knowledge about the glaucoma medication, and familial support were affecting factors for glaucoma medication compliance. To enhance glaucoma medication compliance, these factors should be considered.
Appointments and Schedules ; Compliance ; Glaucoma* ; Humans ; Medication Adherence* ; Ophthalmic Solutions ; Surveys and Questionnaires