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 The physicians in the study agreed it's important to talk about
medication adherence with their patients - but still, the topic
rarely came up during office visits.
Doctors may need to explicitly ask patients if they ever skipped
medications over the past month in order to get an accurate picture
of their adherence, the researchers say.
Most of the doctors admitted they didn't know how often their
patients missed doses of their medications, according to a report in
JAMA Cardiology.
Dr. Neil Stone of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern
University in Chicago and his co-author Rosemary Hines surveyed 21
doctors and 66 patients at four cardiology practices in Chicago
during the summer of 2015.
Overall, 61 percent of the patients said they rarely or never talked
with their doctors about how often they took their medications.
Eight patients had poor adherence - but in only one of those cases
did the doctor realize it. Thirty-six patients had only moderate
adherence.
About 67 percent of doctors admitted they didn't how often their
patients missed medication doses. Yet, they all agreed that
medication adherence is an important topic of discussion between
doctors and patients.
Research shows that consistently taking heart medications matters.
In a study led by Dr. Niteesh Choudhry of Brigham and Women's
Hospital in Boston, people who regularly took their medicines after
a heart attack were less likely to be readmitted to the hospital for
other heart problems.
"What we know in general terms is that people need to take at least
80 percent of their medications," said Choudhry, who was not
involved with the new study.
Stone told Reuters Health he hopes the study raises a red flag and
that doctors start explicitly asking patients about their medication
adherence.
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"'Do you take them regularly?' is number one," he said. "Then, 'how
many have you missed in the last 30 days?' That tells you what's
really going on.”
Choudhry said the results are not surprising, and he likes the idea
of asking a simple question.
"We can’t guess if our patients our adherent or not," he said. "We
really need to ask them."
Choudrhy said people who don't take their medications may end up
having uncontrolled blood pressure or other problems. Doctors who
don't realize their patients aren't taking medications as prescribed
may prescribe additional medication, which would complicate the
problem.
"This idea that we have to emphasize adherence when we want our
patient to have good outcomes makes sense," he said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1T904vD JAMA Cardiology, online May 11, 2016.
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