Assessing the Validity of Self-Reported Medication Adherence in Hepatitis C Treatment

Abstract

Adherence to peginterferon and ribavirin decreased gradually during therapy but remained relatively high. Simple self-reported measures can be used to screen for nonadherence to HCV drug therapy, but should be considered as overestimation of the actual amounts taken.

Pharmacist Intervention in Treatment of Patients With Genotype 1 Chronic Hepatitis C

“…25 However, the authors explained these high adherence rates as the result of the tendency of self-report to overestimate adherence and the possible screening out of patients at high risk for nonadherence. 25,26 In our study, treatment adherence as measured by inspecting pill boxes was 85.7%, even though 68.0% of patients experienced at least 3 adverse treatment effects. Thus, our results are promising, although preliminary because our study lacked a comparison group and enrolled only 50 patients.…”

The critical role of medication adherence in the success of boceprevir and telaprevir in clinical practice

“…The focus on adherence in HCV treatment to date has largely been on early treatment discontinuation and dose reduction rather than missed doses/injections [1] yet data collected through electronic monitoring indicate that patients do miss a significant number of doses of ribavirin and interferon [2]. The additional pill burden and treatment toxicity that DAAs will add to the considerable existing treatment burden will increase the adherence challenge for patients.…”

“…This issue is also currently being addressed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and various other regulatory agencies worldwide. In the US, beginning in 2008, the FDA has enforced the formal requirement for dietary supplement manufacturers to comply with dietary supplement-specific Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) [2]. The regulations outline the requirements that support product quality and safety including ingredient testing, manufacturing equipment and facilities, manufacturing process controls, product testing, product complaint handling, and documentation.…”

Optimizing therapy in treatment-naïve genotype 1 patients

“…In clinical practice, adherence is typically measured by self-report, although it is recognized that overestimation of adherence by patients is common. In a prospective study comparing self-report (touch screen computer questionnaire administered on multiple study visits) to an electronic monitor placed on the container of medications to measure when the drug was taken [51], adherence for PEG-IFN was shown to be higher than for RBV (84% to 100% vs 69% to 90%) but decreased over time for both medications. Self-reported adherence for RBV was 91% at week 4 and 76% at week 48 versus an electronically recorded adherence of 74% at week 4 and 43% at week 48 [51].…”

“…In a prospective study comparing self-report (touch screen computer questionnaire administered on multiple study visits) to an electronic monitor placed on the container of medications to measure when the drug was taken [51], adherence for PEG-IFN was shown to be higher than for RBV (84% to 100% vs 69% to 90%) but decreased over time for both medications. Self-reported adherence for RBV was 91% at week 4 and 76% at week 48 versus an electronically recorded adherence of 74% at week 4 and 43% at week 48 [51]. These results highlight the need to reinforce medication adherence, particularly for RBV and especially in the latter half of the treatment course.…”