A recent study identifying critical indicators related to medication adherence emphasises the complexity of the issue and the difficulty in predicting adherence to medications. The findings suggest a need for tailored, country-specific interventions and health policies to increase adherence, improve health outcomes and reduce economic burdens.
Researchers identified and prioritised indicators related to medication adherence (IRMAs) across 39 European countries and Israel through an online expert survey. Follow-up work involved collecting country-specific data on IRMAs in two countries through a targeted literature review and subsequent data validation with a second online expert survey.
Survey participants were medication adherence experts from various clinical fields, including physicians, pharmacists, psychologists and nurses who were all part of the European Network to Advance Best Practices and Technology on Medication Adherence (ENABLE).
A total of 17 out of 34 invited ENABLE members responded to the initial survey, resulting in 205 indicators of IRMA. The second survey saw 21 participants rank the 205 indicators, and 25 indicators emerged with a relevance score above 3.5.
The researchers were able to group the IRMAs into six main categories:
- Country characteristics such as healthcare provider, demographics or method of payment
- Social and economic factors including how medication was paid for and socioeconomic status
- Therapy-related factors such as the number of medications taken
- Patient-related factors linked to behaviours and attitudes
- Condition-related factors around the nature of the illness
- Healthcare system-related factors such as availability of services.
In addition, the researchers included ‘country population’ as an additional indicator because of its essential role in facilitating comparative analyses across countries in the future.
The findings offered a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing medication adherence and successfully highlighted the priority areas as perceived by healthcare professionals engaged in this field. They will have significant implications for policymakers, healthcare providers and researchers, according to the researchers.
‘These results suggest that effective adherence-enhancing interventions must extend beyond addressing patient and therapy-related factors to include broader socio-economic and healthcare system-related determinants,’ the researchers said.
The researchers said the findings will enable fair comparisons across countries and provide a basis for the prediction of medication adherence rates in further studies.
Further research is also needed to rank these indicators accordingly and better comprehend their impact, and this could benefit from incorporating patient viewpoints to enhance the comprehensiveness and applicability of the findings, the researchers added.
Reference
Ágh T et al. and European Network to Advance Best Practices and Technology on Medication Adherence (ENABLE) Collaborators (2024). Identifying and presenting key country-specific indicators related to medication adherence: a comprehensive study across European countries. Front. Pharmacol. 15:1390629. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1390629.
