OBJECTIVES:Medication non-adherence is complex and varies across different conditions for the same patient. Medication Adherence Reasons Scale (MAR-Scale) is a 20-item comprehensive tool that can be used to quantify and qualify medication adherence. The objective was to measure adherence rates and identify the various reasons for medication non-adherence across different disease conditions, across orals, injectables, and topicals, and across daily and weekly frequencies of administration.

METHODS: The study used an online survey research design using a national representative sample to collect data from patients across 17 different disease conditions including arthritis, dermatitis/eczema, Crohn’s disease/ulcerative colitis, type 2 diabetes, GERD/heartburn, osteoporosis/osteopenia, sleep condition, chronic constipation, depression, epilepsy, irritable bowel syndrome, lupus, migraine, multiple sclerosis, pain, psoriasis, and overactive bladder. Patients reported on whether using the medicines as orals, injectables, and topicals, as well as daily vs. weekly frequency of administration. Descriptive analyses were used to calculate adherence rates and top reasons for non-adherence.

RESULTS: The rate of non-adherence ranged from 25.2% in type 2 diabetes to 63.7% in dermatitis/eczema in patients taking oral medicines daily. For oral daily medicines, top reasons for non-adherence across all conditions were forgetfulness, side effects, and concern about long term effects. For oral medicines taken weekly, non-adherence ranged from 27.4% in osteoporosis to 76.8% in depression and the top reason for non-adherence was skipping the medicine to see if still needed. When medicines were compared between daily oral, weekly oral, daily injectable, and weekly injectable, both the rates and reasons for non-adherence differed. While non-adherence was 37.4% in daily oral medicines for arthritis, it was 50.8% in weekly injectables, and 67.0% in daily injectables.

CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate how medication non-adherence rates and reasons vary across different conditions, modes, and frequencies. This underscores the potential importance and utility of using a self-reported scale to develop interventions.