What is Medication Adherence?

Medication Adherence occurs when patients take their medications as prescribed, and can also be described as the correspondence between drug administration and the actual history of the prescribed regimen.

Medication non-adherence is a worldwide challenge resulting in wasted resources, productivity losses, and poorer quality of life for patients. Whether patients choose not to take their medications as prescribed or they simply forget, non-adherence is a multifactorial problem requiring a multifaceted solution. According to the World Health Organization, medication non-adherence can mostly be attributed to 5 broad categorizations.

The WHO notes that improvements to medication adherence rates may have a larger effect on the overall health of patients than advancements of medications themselves (Brown & Bussell, 2011). Given the significant development of ‘specialty medicines’ in the last decade, there is no better time than now to ensure these high-quality medications are used properly."