OBJECTIVES:

Patients with chronic diseases are generally required to take long-term treatments. However lack of adherence is very common and represents major barriers to treatment efficiency. Measuring patient acceptance of their medication help understand and predict patients' medication-taking behavior. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the level of acceptance to medication in chronic disease patients in real life; to explore its determinants and identify issues to define priorities for action.

METHODS: Observational, cross-sectional study conducted in Europe using Carenity Online Community. Adult patients with a chronic disease were invited to complete an online questionnaire including a validated patient reported outcome measure: the 25-item ACCEptance by the Patients of their Treatment (ACCEPT©). It includes one general acceptance dimension and five multi-item treatment-attribute specific dimensions scored from 0-100 (lowest to highest acceptance). Multivariate linear regression was conducted to explore factors related to Acceptance/General.

RESULTS: CONCLUSIONS: Treatment acceptance is not satisfactory in chronic disease patients. General acceptance is mainly driven by patients’ perceived treatment effectiveness, side effects and long term use while socio-demographical and clinical characteristics have a minor contribution. These findings indicate patients’ priorities and unmet needs; however, they must be confirmed using longitudinal data.