Adherence to medication treatment in chronic diseases and related factors

Adherence is defined as the extent to which people follow the instructions they are given for prescribed treatments (1). The decrease in adherence to treatment causes increased heathcare costs due to the wastage of limited healthcare sources and delayed or stopped drug effects because of not fullfilling the treatment regimens apropriately and prolonged disease periods (2). This cross-sectional study, was carried out by conducting face to face questionnaries, which aim to measure sociodemographic traits, health related habits, medication adherence and beliefs about medicines. Seven hundred and forty seven outpatients who were older than eighteen years old, who have to use at least one drug regularly for a year or more for at least one chronic condition, who agree to join the study, who have an doctor's appointment in one of three different clinics of Başkent University Medical School Ankara Hospital have been randomly involved in the study. The questionnary which was conducted for the purpose of gathering data consists of 52 questions including 10 questions about sociodemographic traits, 4 questions about health related habits and 38 questions about the patient's ilness(es) and adherence to medication. In addition "The Beliefs About Medicines Questionnary", which has 18 questions in it, was also conducted. 27,4% of the patients were found not to take their drugs ragularly and as suggested. Medication adherence rates were found to be 73,2% for patients with DM, 62,7% for patients with HT, 69,8% for patients with asthma/COPD. While the medication adherence was significantly low among diabetic males compared to females, there found to be no significant relationship between gender and medication adherence among patients with HT and asthma/COPD. There was a negative relationship between drug adherence and concerns about medicines and a positive one between drug adherence and beliefs about the necessity of drugs. There found to be a negative relationship between adherence and beliefs about general overuse of the drugs. Additionally, the drugs which have signs (numbers/days) on their inner packaging, reminding the order in which to take the drug, were found to be missed less. Adherence to doctor's appointment rate was found to be 79% for diabetic patients, 70% for hipertensive patients, 71,9% for patients with asthma and 55,3% for patients with COPD. 93,2% of the diabetic patients, 91,4% of hipertensive patients, 91,9% of the patients with asthma and 97,4% of the patients with COPD indicated that they were pleased with the therapy organized. We tried to determine the variables to avoid non-adherence, an important reason for the healthcare costs, while trying to find out the reasons behind the problem of non-adherence which determines the effectiveness of the treatment in chronic diseases. The outcomes, that were found in this study, correspond with the ones which were found in previous similar studies. Ensuring that patients receive maximum benefit from medical treatment, by determining the causes of drug non-compliance in chronic illnesses, plays an important role in preventing many negativities in terms of health and cost.