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

PURPOSE: This study aims to verify the effects of the Group Motivational Interviewing Compliance Therapy on drug attitude, medicine application self-efficacy and medicine application in psychiatric patients. METHODS: This was a quasi-experimental study with a non-equivalent control group pre-posttest design. Participants were 43 patients (22 in experimental group and 21 in control group) who were registered at neuro-psychiatric day care center in one university hospital, S city. The experimental group received the Group Motivational Interviewing Compliance Therapy for 6 sessions over 6 weeks. Data were collected between November, 2014 and September, 2016. Comparison of the pre-post results was performed by paired t-test and between-group effect was analyzed by ANCOVA with the SPSS/WIN 23.0 program. RESULTS: The experimental group had a significant increase in drug attitude compared to the control group. However, there was no significant difference in medicine application self-efficacy and medicine application between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The Group Motivational Interviewing Compliance Therapy is suggested as a promising program that helps psychiatric patients improve drug attitude. Further studies are needed to confirm the effects of the Group Motivational Interviewing Compliance Therapy.
Compliance* ; Day Care, Medical ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Motivational Interviewing* ; Non-Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic

BACKGROUND: There have been few studies of treatment adherence in Asian patients with psoriasis and understanding of the factors is important to improve outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To provide an overview of treatment adherence among Korean patients with psoriasis and to understand how the perceptions of patients and physicians affect topical treatment adherence. METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted to determine the views and opinions of dermatologists and psoriasis patients on topical treatment adherence. The survey items were developed in collaboration with psoriasis experts. RESULTS: Twenty-six dermatologists and fifty patients completed their questionnaire. In the physician survey, more than half of dermatologists only inquired about adherence up to 20% of the time. Most dermatologists generally thought that their patients had high expectations of treatment. Nearly 40% of dermatologists reported that more than 60% of their patients adhered to the prescribed topical treatment. In the patient survey, more than 15% of patients reported that they did not receive enough information about the drug. Around one-fifth of the patients also complained about the physical properties of the products. The majority of patients were confident with the current topical treatments and expected fast improvement, within a couple of weeks. The most common reason for low adherence was forgetfulness. Inconvenience and concerns about side effects were common reasons for topical treatment discontinuation. CONCLUSION: Because adherence to topical treatment is a complex, multifactorial issue with factors varying between patients, dermatologists should focus on determining each patient's individual adherence barriers to achieve good treatment outcomes.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Compliance ; Cooperative Behavior ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Psoriasis* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVES: The monitoring of medication compliance in clinical trials is important but labor intensive. To check medication compliance in clinical trials, a system was developed, and its technical feasibility evaluated. METHODS: The system consisted of three parts: a management part (clinical trial center database and a developed program), clinical trial investigator part (monitoring), and clinical trial participant part (personal digital assistant [PDA] with a barcode scanner). The system was tested with 20 participants for 2 weeks, and compliance was evaluated. RESULTS: This study developed a medication compliance monitoring system that used a PDA with a barcode scanner, which sent reminder/warning messages, logged medication barcode data, and provided compliance information to investigators. Registered participants received short message service (SMS) reminder/warning messages on their PDA and sent barcode data at the dosing time. The age range of the participants was 29 to 73 years. Five participants were <50 years old and 8 were ≥65 years old. The total mean compliance rate was 82.3%. The mean compliance rate was 83.1% in participants <65 years old and 81.1% in those ≥65 years old. CONCLUSIONS: The system was feasible, usable, and effective, even with elderly participants, for monitoring medication compliance in clinical trials using a PDA with a barcode scanner, and may improve the quality of clinical trials.
Aged ; Compliance ; Computers, Handheld ; Humans ; Medication Adherence* ; Research Personnel ; Text Messaging

BACKGROUND: This study was to verify the necessity of a control program developed to improve compliance, by conducting a research on the status of medication compliance in the elderly with chronic diseases in rural area and analyzing the related variables. METHODS: The organized questionnaire and pill-count were used to collect information on personal details, physical status, drugs taken in the elderly over 65 years old suffering from more than two chronic diseases in one rural area. RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 73.13+/-6.36 (65~93), and the number of the subjects in compliance group was 60 (77.9%) and the accuracy of self-report which was identified by pill-count was 0.86. Polypharmacy and visiting several clinics were the main factors that decided a low- degree of compliance, with OR of 5.92 (95% CI 1.11~31.44, P=0.037), and 4.25 (95% CI 1.03~17.53, P=0.045), respectively. CONCLUSION: Systematic efforts are necessary and plans must be established without delay to increase compliance in the elderly in the rural, expansively to manage chronic diseases in stay-at-home elders.
Aged ; Chronic Disease ; Compliance ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Polypharmacy ; Republic of Korea ; Stress, Psychological ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: This study was intended to investigate whether maintenance dosage has been enough for patients with schizophrenia to prevent relapse by examining antipsychotic medication compliance and maintenance dosage during 6 months prior to the admission. METHODS: The study subjects were 552 patients with schizophrenia who were admitted to Asan Medical Center between March 2000 and August 2003. Of the 552, 142 patients' compliance of antipsychotic regimen and mean daily dosage was calculated by analyzing refill record for up to 6 months prior to the admission. The cumulative mean gap ratios (CMG: the number of days when medication was unavailable in relation to the total number of days) at 6 months were calculated. Improvement of CGI-severity score during the admission and mean daily dosage of antipsychotic regimen at the time of discharge was also investigated. RESULTS: Of the readmitted patients, 37.1% were totally non-compliant during 6 months prior to the admission. The CMG score of the patients who had been followed up over 6 months was 22.2%. Patients whose CMG score was less than 20 percent were 62.7 percent of the overall subjects. Their mean daily dosage of antipsychotics for 6 months prior to the admission was 265 mg/day CPZ-EQ, and the dosage of antipsychotics on discharge was 432 mg/day CPZ-EQ. After raising the dosage of antipsychotics, the CGI-S was improved by the average of -1.45. CONCLUSION: Despite the advancement of atypical antipsychotics, noncompliance to medication still remains a serious problem in relapse of schizophrenia. On the other hand, 62.7% of overall patients had experienced relapse of schizophrenia despite good compliance over 80 percent and maintenance dosage of 265 mg/day CPZ-EQ. Their symptoms could be relieved by raising the dosage of antipsychotics during the admission. Therefore, in those patients, the maintenance dosage of 265 mg/day CPZ-EQ was not enough to prevent relapse.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Compliance* ; Hand ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Recurrence ; Schizophrenia*