Karachi, Pakistan - Medication non-adherence is a global issue. Physicians are deemed responsible for assessing medication non-adherence, however, other health professionals, such as pharmacists may also be involved. Unfortunately, neither the health professionals nor the patients they are assessing are taking it seriously.
In the article, “
Disparity Between Health Care Professionals and Low Socioeconomic Patients with Respect to Factors Associated to Medication Non-Adherence in Karachi,” published in Vol. 19 Issue 1 of
ISPOR CONNECTIONS, the authors attempted to compare health care professionals’ perceptions of medication non-adherence with the patients’ data, from a remote part of Karachi, Sikandarabad. A gap was noticed between the health professionals understanding of the patients’ need for medication adherence.
The perception of the health professionals, with respect to the patients’ needs for non-adherence, is different than the patients’ perspective. The three major differences are: cost as a major factor for primary non-adherence, the perception that providing information about medication adverse effects would result in non-adherence, and the source of drug information. As a result, some of the patients stop the medication early or do not take the medication as per the prescription.
Mr. Muhammad Amir, BPharm, Msc, MBA, author of the study states, “Medication non-adherence is like a disease; it needs assessment, treatment and further research.”
ISPOR CONNECTIONS (ISSN 1538-5108), the bimonthly news & technical journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), strives to provide timely communications on methodological and health policy issues of interest to Society members.
International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) is a nonprofit, international, educational and scientific organization that strives to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness of health care resource use to improve health.
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