The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act went into effect on 1 January 2006. Part of this act was the creation of Medicare Part D, a federal program to subsidize the costs of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries. In 2006, the plan required beneficiaries whose total annual drug costs exceeded $2250 to pay 100% of prescription costs until they spent $5100 on med...

OBJECTIVE Medication nonadherence is a major cause of uncontrolled hypertension, but clinicians are poor at judging adherence, and the gold standard for measuring adherence, electronic monitoring, is rarely available in clinical settings. Self-report questionnaires (SRQs), by contrast, are inexpensive, easy to administer, and hence, may be useful for 'diagnosing' nonadherence. In this study, we...

OBJECTIVE Few studies have investigated nonadherence to phosphate binders. The aim of this study was to evaluate the degree of adherence of our hemodialysis (HD) patients to phosphate binders and to determine which variables were related to nonadherence to treatment. METHODS In 165 HD patients, the degree of adherence to the drugs prescribed was studied using the Simplified Medication Adheren...

BACKGROUND Clinicians are challenged to find ways to assess and measure adherence to oral agents for cancer (OACs). OBJECTIVES The purpose of this article is to report on available ways to assess and measure medication adherence by patients with cancer. METHODS Tools examined include the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS) and the Adherence Estimator, which are able to predict risk of...

BACKGROUND Adherence to acne medication is poor and is a major reason why treatment plans are ineffective. Recognizing solutions to nonadherence is critical. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to describe the hurdles associated with acne nonadherence and to provide mechanisms on how to ameliorate them. METHODS PubMed database was searched. Of the 419 search results, 29 articles were rev...

Background Diabetes is disproportionally burdensome among African-Americans (AAs) and medication adherence is important for optimal outcomes. Limited studies have qualitatively examined reasons for nonadherence among AAs with type 2 diabetes, though AAs are less adherent to prescribed medications compared to whites. This study explored the reasons for medication nonadherence and adherence among...