Even though 45% of all medications prescribed in the UK are for older people, it is postulated that up to 50% of older people are non-compliant with their medication (SCIE, 2005).
The prescription of various medicines is central to medical care and the overall drug costs account to about 10 percent of NHS expenditures. Surveys carried out in literature enlighten us with the fact that approximately 30% to 50% of patients do not use of take their medications as recommended by their prescriber. (1). Statistics show that in 2007- 2008, the NHS in England spent £8.1 billion on drugs & if as many as 50% of the patients dont take their medications as recommended, this could mean that £4 billion worth of medicines were incorrectly used (2) . Furthermore the additional cost of unused or unwanted medicines within NHS totals up to £100 million each year.
On top of that the estimated drug cost of unused or unwanted medicines in the NHS is around £100 million annually (3).
A Cochrane review Interventions for enhancing medication adherence concluded that improving medicines taking may have a far greater impact on clinical outcomes than an improvement in treatments (4). Therefore if the prescription is inappropriate in the first place it not only translates as a loss to patient but also involves the healthcare system and the society. The costs included here are both personal and economic.
Concepts of Adherence and terminology
There are three major terms which are commonly used in the literature to describe medication-taking behaviours i.e Compliance, Adherence and Concordance (5). According to Pound (6) initially, the term compliance was used to illustrate the medication taking behaviour, which was then replaced by the term concordance. The term compliance came into disfavour because it suggested that a person is passively following a doctors orders, rather than actively collaborating in the treatment process (3) Whereas concordance refers to the anticipated outcome of the consultation between doctors and patients about medicine taking It is viewed as successful prescribing and medication taking based on the partnership with the patient (6). However the most current, fashionable and accepted terminology is adherence, which is defined by McElnay (7) , as the extent to which a persons behaviour (in) in terms of taking medicines, following diets or executing lifestyle changes, coincides with advice given by health care professionals Adherence shifts the balance between professional and patient about the prescribers recommendations.
Pound (6) states that the above mentioned three terminologies tend to be used interchangeably but are incorrectly applied. Adherence can be viewed as the central aim, concordance is the process used to apply the central aim & compliance is the outcome of the process.
The benefits of medication might be restricted thereby causing a further deterioration in health as a consequence of non-adherence. . On top of this the economic costs do not only translate to wasted medicines only but also include the knock on costs which arise from increased demands for healthcare if (on the whole) health deteriorates. It is hence due to this reason that non-adherence is a major issue and should not only be seen as the patients dilemma. A fundamental drawback is represented in the provision of the healthcare, which is often due to a failure in completely agreeing with the prescription in the first place or to recognise the appropriate support that the patients might require later on during the treatment. Hence addressing non-adherence is by no means about getting patients to take additional medicines. Therefore tackling the issue of non-adherence involves the initial understanding of patients opinion on the medicine and then the various reasons to as why they are/might be reluctant or unable to use them.
Causes of non-adherence
There are many causes of non-adherence however they fall into two main overlapping categories i.e intentional and unintentional. Both types relate to the lack of an established pattern of medication taking which led to the incidental omission of medicines and may be experienced concurrently (8).
Purposeful or intentional non-adherence occurs when a patient makes a specific decision not to take the prescribed medication. The anticipation of drug-related side effects and general dislike of taking medicines are common causes of intentional non-adherence (9). While accidental or unintentional non-adherence occurs as a result of forgetting or misunderstanding instructions about the drug schedule .Unintentional non-adherence is proposed to be range from a random departure to medication omissions from a prescribed treatment regimen (10). Hence the main features of unintentional non-adherence focuses on altering medication contingent on self assessment or perceptions of mental health, stress or anxiety, forgetting to take medicines or simply altering the doses of medicines to fit in with daily chores.
A research carried out by Svensson (10) & Kippen (11) showed that older people adherent with their medication often link the administration of medication to specific lifestyle events, location, time, and patterns of daily activities. Below table 1.3.1 shows the common perceptions and characteristics of adherent and non adherent medication taking behaviors.
Table 1: Shows common perceptions and characteristics of adherent and non adherent medication taking behaviours.
Perceptions related to medication taking behavior
Intentional Non-adherence
Unintentional Non-adherence
Feeling unnatural taking medicines
Fears of prescribing errors/addiction
Life style change/ Disruption to daily routine
Adverse effects of medicines
Lack of faith in the prescriber
Drug related memory loss/ Forgetfulness
Long term risks of medicines
Failure to accept diagnosis
Altering dosing regimen
Past experience of medicines
Dislike of taking medicines
Being asymptomatic
Lack of comprehension of the need to take medicines.
Testing medicines against symptoms
Period of illness
Vulnerable group of people
Of all the age groups, medication taking behaviour in older people is of the highest concern. This is due to multiple reasons as described by Huges (12). Firstly, older people are highly likely to suffer from multiple diseases. Secondly, older people frequently administer three or more medicines concurrently to manage these conditions and third as a result of poly pharmacy, they are increasingly likely to mismanage their medicines (13). Furthermore, research shows the following as different lay beliefs by older people on medicine taking
The need to reduce the symptoms of hypertension, to feel physically better (14).
Fear of complications and desire to control blood pressure (10).
Positive confidence in the prescriber (15).
Apart from the elderly, another age group, where non- adherence is becoming a significant problem is in the pediatric population. In one of the studies carried out by Bush (16) it has been shown that one-third of the children in grades 3 to 7 reported they had used one or more prescription or non prescription medications in a 48 hour period. Adherence plans for children often require innovative approaches to encourage active participation in caring for their own health and how to use their medications appropriately.
Consequences of medication non-adherence
No matter how much critical the conditions are a patient might stick to his medication regimen, thus reflecting a loss of the health care system with increased use of medical resources, such as GP visits, unnecessary additional treatments, emergency department visits and hospital admissions.
One of the recent research shows that about 3-4% of UK hospital admissions are as a result of avoidable medicine related illness (17) & between 11 and 30 % of these admissions result from patients who dont use their medicines as recommended by their prescriber (3). In a similar manner, in 2006-2007, figures show that that the NHS expenditures on hospital admissions (excluding critical care costs) was approximately about £ 16.4 billion (18). And the estimated costs of admissions, within the same year i.e. 2006 2007, resulting from patients not taking their medicines as recommended was found to be between £36 and £196 million respectively (18). Hence a reduction in these admissions and associated costs would be expected as the overall medicines adherence increases.
Factors affecting medication adherence
In accordance to WHO some of the main common factors reported to have a significant effect on adherence include: poverty, low level of education, illiteracy, poor socioeconomic status, unemployment, unstable living conditions, lack of effective social support networks, long distance from treatment centre, high cost of medication, changing environmental situations, high cost of transport, family related issues and culture & lay beliefs about illness and treatment.
In accordance to WHO the common belief of patients being the sole responsible for taking their treatment is misleading and most often reflects a misunderstanding of how other factors affect peoples behaviour and the capacity to adhere to their treatment.
Adherence, in short, is a multidimensional phenomenon which is determined by the interplay of five different sets of factors, each of which are termed as dimension by WHO (5) . Each of these dimensions are listed as under and shall be discussed in detail
Social/ economic factors
Provider-patient/ health care system factors
Condition related factors
Therapy-related factors
Patient related factors
Social and economic dimension
It includes limited access to health care facilities, medication costs, low health literacy, limited English language proficiency, unstable living conditions (homelessness), lack of family/social support network, and cultural beliefs about illness and treatment. Among these factors few shall be discussed in detail as under
English language proficiency
Both low health literacy and limited English language proficiency are barriers to adherence that deserve special consideration. Health literacy can be defined as the ability to read, understand and act on health information so that appropriate health decisions can be made.
The risk of unsafe use of prescription medicine, is high among people with low health literacy and limited proficiency in English language due to the complex nature of the printed information that is available and because these people often do not receive adequate verbal communication or sufficient time from health care providers.
Older adults with low health literacy may have trouble reading health information materials, understanding basic medical instructions, following prevention recommendations and adhering to medication regimens.
Social factors
Medication adherence is positively associated with social support and the availability of help from family and friends. Better outcome to treatment is observed in people who have social support from their friends/family (who assist them with their medication regimens)
Cultural beliefs and attitudes
Adherence to therapy, may overall be affected as a consequence of different attitudes which the patient may have towards health and medicine. Addressing these issues by the health care professionals is of prime importance so that the patients can get the most out of their medicines without compromising their health
In case of adults, different components of health and healing cannot be explained by no one list. Therefore each individual must be considered on individual basis. Two major key components are requisite i.e asking non-judgmental questions & listening, when it comes down to understanding the process of gaining an insight into patients beliefs (regarding health and healing)
Patients belonging from various ethnic minorities bring along their practices in the health care system. This sometimes puts the health care professionals at test, who have been professionally trained in the light of western philosophy and medicine. Although groups of people may have beliefs or practices in common, yet that doesnt mean that they all can be classified under the same category. Within groups , the major differentiating factors include health status, educational level, sexual orientation etc (5).
Respect
Taking care of elder patients who belong from such backgrounds where they receive a great amount of respect (e.g. British Asian community ) should involve the element of respect combined with kindness. If they are approached with an attitude that consists even a tiny fraction of scolding or telling off, they might show resentment towards the adherence of medicine even though it may put their lives at risk. Therefore to put such patients at relieve it is of prime importance to show respect towards them .
Traditional therapies and cause of illness
Literature shows that two components such as religion and spirituality can play a vital role in the overall understanding of illness in its broadest sense among older people (19). The will of God for an improper behaviour, exposure to cold wind, natural causes etc are all different factors which older patients believe are major culprits for causing illness (20). This consequently leads them in such a situation where they end up giving God a chance to heal them or alternatively they seek help from a folk healer, try home remedies or pray for the treatment of their illness. An excellent example of this can be viewed within the Chinese culture where health may be seen as finding norm between ying & yang, which is much more like hot and cold (21). Now patients who follow Chinese health belief may try such approaches which targets at restoring the balance between ying and yang (using different varieties of food and herbs). Likewise, some Asian ethnic groups rely solely on traditional remedies for the treatment of long term conditions (21). At this stage it is also important to mention that the patient may not be cooperative if he believes that the health care provider may disapprove information surrounding the use of non-traditional remedies. This may ultimately lead to different interactions with the prescribed medications.
Medication
For some patients the preference lies in the dosage form or the size or colour of the medication. For example some cultures in Latin America view injections as more potent in comparison to oral medications. Likewise it is believed that Western medications are too strong by Chinese older patients & hence therefore they might choose to not take the full dose of medicine (22).
Health care system dimensions
It includes different factors such as provider-patient relationship, provider communication skills, patient information materials written at too high literacy level, restricted formularies (changing medications covered on formularies), poor access or missed appointments, long waiting time and lack of continuity of care (23).
The quality of the HCP-patient relationship is one of the most important health care system-related factors impacting adherence. Adherence to medicines can be increased as a result of good relationship between the patient and the HCP (which features the element of reinforcement and encouragement from the HCP), however there are many factors which have negative effect (24). These include lack of training and knowledge for health care providers on managing chronic diseases, lack of incentives and feedback on performance, poor medication distribution systems, short consultations, overworked health care providers, weak capacity of the system to educate patients and provide follow up, lack of knowledge on adherence and of effective interventions for improving it.
Condition related dimensions
It includes Psychotic disorders, severity of symptoms, chronic conditions, depression, lack of symptoms, mental retardation (25). Among these factors few shall be discussed in detail as under
Chronic conditions and lack of symptoms
Information within literature supports the fact that adherence to such treatment options (often declines as the time progresses) where medications have to be taken on an unlimited basis for the management of a chronic ailment. Example of two perfect clinical conditions which would fit into this profile include high BP and osteoporosis (26) , in which the symptoms are totally invisible to the patient. Furthermore, in the absence of symptoms these ailments lack the cues which would motivate the patient to adhere towards his treatment regimen.
Depression
A study carried out by Krueger (28) showed significantly lower rates of medication adherence among people with chronic illnesses and who are depressed. It is therefore crucial for the HCPs to be aware of the devastating impact, depression has on adherence & consequently on regular basis should assess older patients who are sad all the time or who report symptoms of sleeping disturbances to eliminate the possibility of clinical depression. The slow onset of the pharmacological actions posed by different classes of antidepressants is classified as one of the major factor that contributes towards decreased adherence among elder patients. Adding on to that if the patient begins to experience the side effects (before even the symptoms are relieved), might consequence discontinuation of the therapy at a very early stage. In a similar fashion, a research conducted by Kemyttenaere (29) shows that once the patients (suffering from depression) start feeling bette,r they might stop the antidepressant therapy midway.
Psychotic disorders
A patients experience with unpleasant side effects is mainly one of the key causes which drives them from continuing their antipsychotic therapy. Literature shows that interventions which focus mainly on the persons attitude and beliefs about medications 9rather than on the knowledge) helps improve adherence. The addition of two key ingredients i.e Behavioral techniques & motivational interviewing within compliance therapies, have proven to be very effective in improving medicines adherence among patients who suffer from psychotic disorders (31).
Therapy related factors/dimensions
It can be sub-divided into other different factors such as duration of therapy, lack of immediate benefit of therapy, frequent changes in medication regimen, actual or perceived unpleasant side effects, medications with social stigma attached to use, treatment requires mastery of certain techniques, complexity of medication regimen and treatment interferes with lifestyle or requires significant behavioural changes.
Research by Tabor (32) & Krueger (27) showed that decreased adherence is associated with medications with a social stigma attached to its use and with medications which require following complex regimen ( e.g. duration of therapy, number of daily doses required, or therapies that interfere with a persons lifestyle.
Adherence can also be affected by other factors e.g. if administration of a medication requires the mastery of specific techniques like injections (32). In a similar fashion, when medications such as antidepressants are slow to produce effects, the patients/older person may believe that the medication is not working and might stop taking it. Likewise the side effects of a medication too can lower adherence if the patients start believing that they cannot manage or control them (25).
Patient related factors/dimensions
They can be sub-divided into two major factors i.e psychological/behavioral factors and physical factors.
Psychological factors include fear of dependence or possible adverse effects, knowledge about disease, motivation, perceived risk to disease & benefit of treatment, understanding reason of medication need, confidence in ability to follow treatment, feeling stigmatized by the disease, frustration with health care providers , psychosocial stress, expectations towards treatment and substance (alcohol) abuse.
Physical factors include issues like swallowing problems, hearing, visual & cognitive impairments and impaired dexterity or mobility.
Few of these physical and psychological factors can be discussed in detail as under:
Psychological factors that influence adherence
The WHO proposes a foundation model for medication adherence which is based on three major factors i.e. motivation, information and behavioural change. Behavioural change has been found to be influenced effectively by making interventions based on this model (33).
In accordance to WHO, adherence and non-adherence are different behaviours. In order to change behaviour, information is a prerequisite, but in itself it is insufficient to achieve this change. Hence at this stage behavioural and motivational skills are critical determinants. Motivation and information work largely through the behavioural skills to produce an impact on the behaviour. However, when the behavioural skills are uncomplicated or are familiar, the two aspects i.e motivation and information can produce a direct effect on the behaviour (33).
Physical Factors that influence adherence
The risk for non-adherence among older patients is increased due to physical and cognitive limitations.
Visual Impairment
Decreased ability to perform activities of daily living and an increased risk for depression is associated with vision impairment (34), (35). Furthermore there are many other medication safety issues associated with vision loss. A persons ability to read patient information leaflets, prescription labels, determine the colour and markings distinguishing a medication is affected by low vision and blindness. Therefore consequently people who cannot read prescription labels or distinguish among different medications have to rely on their memory or depend on someone else for help and hence may not be able to take their medications correctly.
Hearing Impairment
Hearing loss is directly related with age. The natural aging process not only affects the ability to detect sounds at lower levels but also the capability to understand speech at a normal conversation level (36). This condition does gets worse with age and is progressive. It is therefore important to not assume when a deaf person nods his head in acknowledgement that he/she has understood, as he/she might be relying on a family member or a companion to explain later (36).
Impaired Mobility
Older patients with poor mobility may have difficulty in self administration of medicines or in obtaining medicines from the pharmacy (37).
Cognitive Impairment
Poor medication adherence is associated with Impaired cognition (25). Elderly patients with memory problems and cognitive impairment may have difficulty in understanding when to take, how to take or how much to take their medications.
Others factors also include as swallowing difficulties and impaired dexterity.
PREDICTORS OF medication non-adherence
Predictors of medication non-adherence can be a useful tool in the improvement of medicine adherence among older adults. Few of the non-adherence warning signs (38) include failure to fill in a new prescription, failure to fill in prescription for choric medication or failure to obtain refills as often as expected for medications taken on chronic basis.
Below are some of the more common predictors of medicines non-adherence (38):
Forgetfulness
Lower cognitive function or cognitive impairment.
Lack of insight into illness
Lack of belief in benefit of treatment.
Belief that medications are not important or are harmful.
Complexity of medication regimen
Tied of taking medications.
Inconvenience of medication regimen.
Side effects or fear of medication side effects.
Missed Appointments.
Substance Abuse
Limited English language proficiency.
Role of NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence):
The issue of non-adherence to medicine is a very important issue in its own essence. After assessing and understanding the impact of non adherence on the NHS the N
