Associations with medication adherence among ethnically different pediatric patients with renal transplants

Abstract

This study examined perceived medication regimen characteristics as factors in levels of medication adherence among 26 African American and 42 European American pediatric renal transplant patients. Among both groups, perceived characteristics of their medication regimen, including pill size, pill taste and medication complexity, were found to have significantly low to moderate associations with medication adherence. These associations were stronger and more consistent across medication adherence measures among the African American patients. This supports the need to separately examine the factors contributing to medication adherence among ethnically different pediatric patients. Suggestions for promoting medication adherence among pediatric patients with renal transplants and implications for future research are discussed.

Tradução e validação para o português do Medication Regimen Complexity Index

“…Some tools published in the literature do not allow a complete evaluation of the complexity 1 or assess other concepts rather than the complexity of pharmacotherapy 17 .…”

“…Studies carried out in recent years have evaluated the complexity of pharmacotherapy in a wide array of diseases, such as epilepsy 5 , schizophrenia 11 , hypertension 12 , type-2 diabetes 13 , HIV/AIDS 3,6 and specific population groups such as the elderly [14][15][16] , polymedicated patients 1 and renal transplanted patients 17 . Some of these studies have demonstrated that the critical points of the complexity of pharmacotherapy can vary depending on the patients' characteristics, such as, for instance, the use of 12 or more doses of medications per day in elderly patients 15 or the dietary restrictions imposed by the administration of the medications in HIV-positive patients 6 .…”

The management of childhood liver diseases in adulthood

“…Key risk factors include lower socioeconomic status, passive parent involvement, side-effects related to medications and poor communication with health care teams [27,[30][31][32][33][34].…”

An overview of disparities and interventions in pediatric kidney transplantation worldwide

“…[66] Dislike for characteristics of the medications themselves, such as pill size or taste, has been associated with poor adherence for children and adolescents, particularly among AA patients. [67] If patients are non-adherent to a particular medication this should be investigated.…”