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The aging population routinely has comorbid conditions requiring complicated medication regimens, yet nonadherence can preclude optimal outcomes. This study explored the association of adherence in the elderly with demographic, socioeconomic, and disease burden measures. Data were from the fifth visit (2011-2013) for 6,538 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, conducted in four communities. The Morisky–Green–Levine Scale measured self-reported adherence. Forty percent of respondents indicated some nonadherence, primarily due to poor memory. Logit regression showed, surprisingly, that persons with low reading ability were more likely to report being adherent. Better self-reported physical or mental health both predicted better adherence, but the magnitude of the association was greater for mental than for physical health. Compared with persons with normal or severely impaired cognition, mild cognitive impairment was associated with lower adherence. Attention to mental health measures in clinical settings could provide opportunities for improving medication adherence.

Treatment adherence : a theoretical analysis / María José Méndez Martos ... [et al.] -- Treatment adherence in chronic kidney disease : a review of the literature / Carolina Santillán Torres Torija -- Chronic kidney disease : graft nephropathy multifactors / Nicolina Calvanese ... [et al.] -- Paradox in health services : arterial reactivity to medical consultation in normotensive persons / Angélica Riveros Rosas and Patricia Ortega-Andeane -- Analytic framework for the study of treatment adherence : results of research in Cuban hypertensive patients / Libertad de los Ángeles Martín Alfonso, Héctor Demetrio Bayarre Vea, and Jorge Amado Grau Ábalo -- Psychosocial factors, adherence treatment, and metabolic control in type 2 diabetic Chilean patients / Manuel Ortiz Parada, Eugenia Ortiz Parada, and Pablo Vera-Villaroel -- Socioeconomic trajectories across the life course and HIV/AIDS adherence behaviors among affected women / Marcela Arrivillaga Quintero, Michael W. Ross, and María Teresa Varela Arévalo -- Challenges to antiretroviral adherence : health beliefs, social support, and gender role in non-adherent men living with HIV in Puerto Rico / Karen Nieves-Lugo and José Toro-Alfonso -- Adherence to treatment in spanish HIV patients : psychological profile associated with adherence behavior / Rafael Ballester Arnal ... [et al.] -- Psychological and biological variables among HIV 100% adherent patients : a path analysis / Julio Alfonso Piña López ... [et al.]

AbstractPoor compliance of prescription medication is an ongoing public health crisis. Nearly half of patients do not take their medication as prescribed, harming their own health while also increasing public health care costs. Despite these detrimental consequences, prior research has struggled to establish cost-effective and scalable interventions to improve adherence rates. We suggest that one reason for the limited success of prior interventions is that they make the personal health costs of non-adherence insufficiently prominent, while a higher saliency of these costs may motivate patients to adhere more. In the current research, we test whether an intervention that makes the personal health costs of non-compliance more salient for patients will increase their medication adherence. To do so, we conducted a randomized controlled trial with 16,191 patients across 278 UK pharmacies over a 9-month time period and manipulated the perceived consequences of medication non-adherence. We find that patients who received a treatment highlighting the personal health costs of non-compliance were significantly more likely to adhere to their medication than three comparison groups (odds ratio = 1.84, 95% confidence interval = 1.37–2.47). Shifting patients' focus to the personal health costs of non-compliance may thus offer a potentially cost-effective and scalable approach to improving medication adherence.

Medication non-adherence is associated with almost 200,000 deaths annually and €80–125 billion in the European Union. Novel technological advances (smart pill bottles, digital inhalers and spacers, electronic pill blisters, e-injection pens, e-Health applications, big data) could help managing non-adherence. Healthcare professionals seem however inadequately informed about non-adherence, availability of technological solutions in daily practice is limited, and collaborative efforts to push forward their implementation are scarce. The European Network to Advance Best practices and technoLogy on medication adherencE (ENABLE, COST Action 19132) aims to 1) raise awareness of adherence enhancing solutions, 2) foster knowledge on medication adherence, 3) accelerate clinical application of novel technologies and 4) work collaboratively towards economically viable policy, and implementation of adherence enhancing technology across healthcare systems.

Medication non-adherence is associated with almost 200,000 deaths annually and €80–125 billion in the European Union. Novel technological advances (smart pill bottles, digital inhalers and spacers, electronic pill blisters, e-injection pens, e-Health applications, big data) could help managing non-adherence. Healthcare professionals seem however inadequately informed about non-adherence, availability of technological solutions in daily practice is limited, and collaborative efforts to push forward their implementation are scarce. The European Network to Advance Best practices and technoLogy on medication adherencE (ENABLE, COST Action 19132) aims to 1) raise awareness of adherence enhancing solutions, 2) foster knowledge on medication adherence, 3) accelerate clinical application of novel technologies and 4) work collaboratively towards economically viable policy, and implementation of adherence enhancing technology across healthcare systems.

Ana Sofia Carvalho,1 Paulo Santos1,2 1Department of Medicine of Community, Information and Health Decision Sciences (MEDCIDS), Faculty of Medicine of University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 2Centre for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS), University of Porto, Porto, PortugalCorrespondence: Ana Sofia CarvalhoFaculty of Medicine of University of Porto, Alameda Professor Hernâni Monteiro, Porto 4200-319, PortugalTel +351 225513600Fax +351 225513601Email asorcarvalho@hotmail.comPurpose: Arterial hypertension is one of the most common diseases in the world, presenting a great impact on global mortality. Despite having good medication, the best control depends on patient's adherence. Our aim is to characterize the relationship of adherence to medication in hypertensive patients with consultation length and other organizational factors of healthcare systems.Patients and methods: We performed a comprehensive review of literature using the MeSH terms "hypertension" and "medication adherence". 61 articles were selected for inclusion and adherence parameters were extracted, allowing us to estimate the mean adherence for each country. The adherence was then correlated with organizational aspects of healthcare systems: consultation length, number of health providers (doctors, nurses and pharmacists), number of hospital beds, health expenditure and general government expenditure.Results: Adherence to medication ranged between 11.8% in Indonesia and 85.0% in Australia. There is much heterogeneity in methodology, but the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale was the preferred method, used in 63.6% of the cases. We found no relation with consultation length, but a significant one with the greater number of health professionals available. Some differences were observed when considering European countries or Morisky Medication Adherence Scale alone.Conclusion: The better the drugs, the better the control of blood pressure, if patients take them. Rather than investing in the prescription of more drugs, it is important to address non-adherence and reduce it to promote better blood pressure control. Organizational factors are relevant constraints and depend on administrative and political decisions. Although they are not always considered, they greatly impact the adherence to medication.Keywords: high blood pressure, medication adherence, primary care, health services administration