‘Not a pill person’: What prescription nonadherence is costing US healthcare
Societal pressure to “do things naturally” is influencing already low rates of prescription adherence in the U.S. — an epidemic resulting in thousands of preventable hospitalizations and deaths each year.
Here are seven things to know about the state of prescription adherence across the country, as The New York Times reports.
1. Research shows between 20 percent and 30 percent of prescriptions are never filled and approximately 50 percent of medications for chronic diseases are not taken as prescribed, according a review in Annals of Internal Medicine.
2. Of those who do take prescription medication, they typically take only half the prescribed dose, the study found.
3. Specifically, about 33 percent of kidney transplant patients do not take their anti-rejection medications, about 41 percent of heart attack patients do not take their blood pressure medications and about 50 percent of children with asthma either do not use their inhalers at all or use them inconsistently.
4. Each year, this lack of adherence is estimated to cause about 125,000 deaths, at least 10 percent of U.S. hospitalizations and cost between $100 billion and $289 billion.
5. Bruce Bender, co-director of the Center for Health Promotion at National Jewish Health in Denver, told The New York Times, “When people don’t take the medications prescribed for them, emergency department visits and hospitalizations increase and more people die. Nonadherence is a huge problem, and there’s no one solution because there are many different reasons why it happens.”
6. One factor fueling nonadherence is patient resistance to prescriptions they view as “chemicals” or “unnatural” treatment options, according to the article.
7. A 2015 study in The New England Journal of Medicine found common reasons for nonadherence included: “I’m not a pill person”; “I’m old fashioned”; and, “Medications remind people they’re sick.”
When a prescriber instructs a pt to take “x” doses of a medication per day… it doesn’t make the difference if the pt takes MORE doses or LESS doses.. both incidents are a issue of NON-COMPLIANCE.
Pts not taking their medication(s) which this article indicates causes a 125,000 deaths. If pt(s) take more medication than what they were prescribed and dies.. the prescriber is held accountable for that death WHY?
Depending on whose number you believe 125,000 deaths from pt not taking their medication is 2-8 times the number of deaths caused by opiate ODing.
Pharmacists are extremely concerned about controlled medications being filled early, but when they see pts always late in filling medication(s) for chronic health issues… DO THEY REALLY CARE ?
Why the DOUBLE STANDARD ?
Filed under: General Problems
There will always be a double standard when medication is prescribed for pain control. It’s the way it is and always will be.