Are Australian clinicians monitoring medication adherence in hematological cancer survivors? Two cross-sectional studies

Abstract

BackgroundHematological cancer survivors are growing in number and increasingly rely on oral therapy. Given known poor outcomes associated with non-adherence and previous evidence that many patients do not fully adhere to their treatment regimen, this study aimed to determine the degree to which clinicians monitor adherence to oral medication in hematological cancer survivors.MethodsData was combined from two cross-sectional surveys of a heterogeneous sample of 431 hematological cancer survivors recruited from three outpatient hematology clinics in three different states (n = 215) and one state cancer registry (n = 216) in Australia. Participants completed a self-administered survey that included demographic characteristics and a 7-item measure of medication adherence developed by the researchers specifically for the purpose of the studies.ResultsOf the 431 participants, 37 % (n = 160) reported currently taking daily cancer-related medication. Of these, 14 % (n = 23) were found to be non-adherent with ‘missing a dose’ being the most commonly reported non-adherent behaviour. Only 41 % of survivors indicated that their hematologist or cancer clinician had ‘always’ asked about their cancer-related medication during their last six visits.ConclusionsNon-adherence to oral therapy remains a problem in hematological cancer survivors, yet clinicians in Australia do not appear to be regularly monitoring adherence in their patients. Given an increasing dependence on oral therapy in clinical hematology and medical oncology and the importance of medication adherence to optimising health outcomes, greater effort should be invested in developing effective interventions to improve support and adherence monitoring by cancer clinicians and GPs.

Who are the support persons of haematological cancer survivors and how is their performance perceived?

“…Survivors with clinician consent were then requested by the registry for written consent to pass on their contact details to the researchers. Details of these procedures are reported elsewhere …”

Prevalence and associates of psychological distress in haematological cancer survivors

“…Survivors with clinician consent were asked to provide informed consent for the registry to pass on their contact details to the researchers. These methods are described elsewhere [28].…”

How can we help haematological cancer survivors cope with the changes they experience as a result of their cancer?

“…Haematological cancer survivors were identified and recruited from one Australian state population-based cancer registry. The standard recruitment methods employed by this registry were used, which are reported in detail elsewhere [31]. Briefly, eligible survivors were identified by registry staff and consent was sought from each eligible survivors' clinician to approach their patient.…”