Understanding and Overcoming Barriers to Medication Adherence: A Review of Research Priorities

Barriers to medication adherence and links to cardiovascular disease risk factor control: the Framingham Heart Study

“…Many intervention studies have been designed, but failed to improve either medication adherence or associated clinical outcomes through improvements in adherence . Interventions specifically designed to improve medication adherence barriers in individuals at‐risk for poor adherence could lead to better clinical outcomes . For example, the observation from the present study that a higher CES‐D score could constitute a barrier for adherence is consistent with other studies .…”

“…However, a systematic review of randomised controlled trials of medication adherence interventions concluded that most strategies aimed at improving medication adherence have not been successful in improving adherence and clinical outcomes for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and associated risk factors . This highlights the need to identify risk factors contributing to low medication adherence and how low adherence affects CVD risk among high‐risk populations …”

“…low medication adherence and how low adherence affects CVD risk among high-risk populations. 15 Older adults constitute a high-risk population for poor medication adherence; as the population ages, chronic coexisting conditions coupled with decreased cognitive functioning might lead to decreased adherence. 7,16,17 A recent systematic review of 15 studies concluded that individuals with cognitive impairment had lower rates of medication adherence compared to those without cognitive impairment.…”

The impact of appointment-based medication synchronization on medication taking behaviour and health outcomes: A systematic review

“…The most common behaviour leading to non‐adherence was missing a dose, followed by forgetting to take the medication, failing to refill a prescription on time, taking a lower dose, not filling a new prescription and stopping the medication all together. This is consistent with prior data which suggests medication non‐adherence as multifactorial involving individual patient characteristics, patient beliefs and attitudes, health literacy, access and costs . Thus, multifaceted interventions to target medication non‐adherence are recommended …”

“…This is consistent with prior data which suggests medication non‐adherence as multifactorial involving individual patient characteristics, patient beliefs and attitudes, health literacy, access and costs . Thus, multifaceted interventions to target medication non‐adherence are recommended …”