Recently published abstracts from last year’s ESPACOMP (International Society for Medication Adherence) meeting offer new insights into the numerous factors that influence patient compliance with medicines:

Researchers in the US used an online survey to discover where 1,673 adults store their medications. The most popular were night-stand drawer (28 per cent); on top of their night-stand (27 per cent); kitchen cabinet (22 per cent); medicine cabinet (20 per cent); kitchen drawer (18 per cent); and kitchen counter (18 per cent). 

The researchers are developing interventions to support pharmacists and other healthcare professionals to help patients chose the most appropriate storage locations, which may influence adherence.

The team is “also designing medication adherence devices that use storage locations or the routines associated with locations to provide as-needed context-sensitive reminders”.

Gender influences

Women are generally more adherent than men, according to research from Poland that included 1,039 patients with hypertension and 541 with diabetes. 

Overall, adherence was significantly higher among females than males: 47 and 42 per cent respectively achieved a high level of adherence.

Adherence levels were better among women than men for both hypertension and diabetes. Among people with diabetes, women were significantly more likely to achieve high levels of adherence than men: 52 and 39 per cent respectively. 

Overall, women showed low adherence about 20 per cent less often than men. 

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis

A study from Wales examined adherence to daily HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among 57 men who have sex with men. The men took PrEP on 67.6 per cent of the 5,463 person-days observed.

PrEP use was higher among older men, those who anticipated higher levels of stigma and those who intended to continue PrEP. Being diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) was associated with lower likelihood of using PrEP. (International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy DOI: 10.1007/s11096-023-01537-5)