Medication Adherence is a measure of how well a patient follows their prescription drug regimen.
It is a combination of a patients compliance; patients taking all medications as prescribed per day and persistence; patients taking their medication for as long as their prescribed.
The consequences of sub-therapeutic prescription medication adherence affect practically every
aspect of the health care system. In the United States non-adherence affects Americans of every age
group, both gender and is likely to comprise higher-income, learned individuals as those at lower
socio-economic strata.
Sub-therapeutic medication adherence has been estimated to cost approximately $300 billion
annually in total direct and indirect healthcare costs.
A recent study released by Medco Health Solutions, Inc. and published in Medical Care found that increased compliance or adherence to prescription drug treatment regimens can result in a significant increase in patient treatment outcomes and a reduction of medical costs.
Researchers examined spending and adherence levels for diabetes, hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), hypertension (high blood pressure) and congestive heart failure (CHF).
For all four conditions, patients with 80% to 100% adherence were significantly less likely to be hospitalized for disease- related reasons or for any other reason compared with less compliant patients.
| 75% | of medications are not taken correctly |
| 50% | of people forget to take medication |
| 40% | of pharmaceutical treatments fail due to incorrect medication usage |
| 33% | of prescriptions are not filled on time |
| 23% | of nursing home admissions are caused by incorrect medication usage |
| 10% | of hospital admissions are caused by people taking medication improperly |
| 300,00 | deaths occur annually from not taking medication properly |
Although the challenge of poor medication adherence has been discussed for decades, the problem continues to be overlooked as a major health care priority, and remains unresolved. Although hypertension increases the risk of ischemic heart disease three- to four-fold and increases the overall cardiovascular risk by two- to three-fold, just 51% of patients take their prescribed doses of drugs to manage this condition.1
Amazingly, the United States spends more money dealing with problems associated with the misuse and abuse of prescription medication than we do on prescription medication itself.
In the year 2000, according to a report published in the March/ April 2001 Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association, Americans spent more than $144 billion on medication, but more than $177 billion on additional health care expenses, hospitalizations and other problems resulting from the improper use of prescription drugs.
Craig L. Fuller
President and CEO of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores June 17, 2002
1. Kramer J,M, Hammill B, Anstrom K, Fetteroff D, Snyder R, Charde J, Hoffman BS, LaPointe NA, Peterson E.
National Evaluation of Adherence to [Beta] Blocker Therapy for 1Year After Acute Myocardial Infarction in
Patients with Commercial Health Insurance. American Heart Journal; 2006: 152(3).
Adherence to Long-Term Therapies: Evidence for Action. World Health Organization 2003.
