Patient self-reported adherence for the most common chronic medication therapy

Abstract

Aims: The aims of this study was to determine adherence to chronic disease medication measured by self-reported questionnaire. Methods: The survey was conducted at 106 Zagreb pharmacies, and the questionnaire was filled out by the study subjects. Results: A total 1,357 diagnoses were reported by survey respondents (i.e., an average of 2.1 diagnoses per respondent). The most common diagnoses were diseases of the circulatory system (n = 500; 36.8%). The great majority of study subjects reported forgetfulness (‘I just forgot’) as the main reason for skipping drug doses. Conclusions: Among the many reasons people give for not adhering to drug treatment, forgetfulness was the most common. Common barriers to adherence are under the patient’s control, so that attention to them is a necessary and important step in improving adherence. The existence of more than one cause of risk considerably increases the non-adherence risk of a patient.