The World Health Organization (WHO) defines adherence as “the extent to which a person’s behaviour – taking medication, following a diet, and/or executing lifestyle changes, corresponds with agreed recommendations from a health care provider. 1” Improving a patient’s medical adherence requires effort from healthcare staff from multi-disciplinary. This report will focus on improving medication adherence in a pharmacy setting.
Medication adherence is one of the obstacles to achieving desired clinical outcomes. Not only would nonadherence potentially harm an individual’s health, it also causes a huge financial burden on the NHS. The overall NHS expenditure on medicines in 2013-2014 was £14.4 billion, where the cost for drugs prescribed in hospitals and dispensed in the community was £159.6 million 2. A report published in 2005 suggests that between a half and third of all medicines prescribed for long term conditions are not taken as recommended 3. Unused or unwanted medicines cost NHS around £300 million annually 4. If the fees for hospital admissions due to medication nonadherence is added, the cost for the NHS will be even greater.
WHO has identified the need to address problems with medication adherence in patients with chronic illnesses. In the same report, WHO has also revealed the severity of medication nonadherence to antihypertensive treatments. Less than half of patients with hypertension in developing countries adhere to their antihypertensive drugs. Even in the United States, a developed country, only 51% of the hypertensive patients adhere to the prescribed treatments 1. It is likely that these patients developed nonadherence in their medications within the first two years of treatment. In a study conducted in Sweden o...
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...velop new and better interventions and ways to measure adherence by using more advanced research12.
In order to address the problems with the current intervention methods, the new health intervention will use the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF), a framework derived from 33 psychological theories 13. It consists of 14 domains from psychological and organisational theory which influences behaviour change. An article published by BioMed Central (BMC) suggests that TDF shows usefulness in a wide range of clinical quality interventions as each of the 14 domains can play a relevant role in the interventions 14. Out of these 14 domains, BMC proposes that eight domains could positively influence patients’ behaviours: knowledge, skills, beliefs about capability, beliefs about consequences, motivation, social influences, behavioural regulation and nature of behaviours 13.
One target behavior needing change is to recognize symptoms of diseases and to get regular check-ups. These two were chosen as one behavior change because they both go hand in hand in preventing diseases. For example, by physically examining myself and by determining if something is wrong by what I know I could seriously limit my chances of illness by scheduling an appointment with my doctor. By communicating this information with my doctor we can come up with a diagnosis together by evaluating all the signs and symptoms. Doing both of these behaviors is essential for a healthy disease free body because even though doctors know how to cure and diagnose diseases no one still knows their bodies better then the patient. For example, doctors may diagnose someone with diabetes due to the physical signs they can see, such as ketone body urination; However, because doctors cannot read the patients mind it is possible that the diagnosis is incorrect. One possible scenario could be that the patient drank a lot last night and so they still experiencing splitting headaches and dehydration. Ketone body urination is a sign doctors can see through a urinalysis but the headache is not and so therefore it's considered a symptom because only a patient can determine the headache as being truth. That being said communicating all this information to the doctor could accurately lead them to diagnosing and treating you for alcoholic ketoacidosis instead of diabetes. So therefore if I understand the symptoms of diseases and then schedule an appointment to communicate with my doctor and get examined then I can become as healthy and as well as possible by limiting my chances of physical harm.
McLeod, M., Ahmed, Z., Barber, N., and Franklin, B. D. (2014). A national survey of inpatient medication systems in English NHS hospitals. BMC health services research, 14(1), p93.
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation and animal research, is using various nonhuman animals experiments, whether it be a psychological or physical test of the animal, or testing medicines and cosmetics to determine if they are good enough for human use and consumption.This specific kinds of research are often conducted at various medical institutes, universities, pharmaceutical companies, and commercial facilities that does the task of testing the products on the animals. Each year, more than 100 million animals are used and die in the name of scientific research. Those animals include rats (12%), frogs (1%), cats (0.8%), dog (0.6%), mice (69%), monkeys (0.1%), guinea pigs (1%), rabbits (1%), fish (10%), and birds (4%). (BBC) Just like anything else, animal research has its pros and cons, but in this case, the cons severely outweigh the pros.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the aging population will continue to grow due to the falling fertility rates and the increases in life expectancy. However, this population has distinctive, demographic factors that may influence their adherence to medication necessities. Dynamics that affect medication regimen in the elderly can be related to “memory and cognition (forgetting to take medication), dexterity (unable to open medication or break pills in half), low literacy, concern about side effects
Martin, L., Williams, S., Haskard, K., & DiMatteo, R. (2005). Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management. The Challenge of Patient Adherence, 189-199. Retrieved November 12, 2014, from http://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=384
When many people think of animal testing, the average person thinks about millions of dogs and cats being injected with dangerous chemicals and substances. However, this is usually not the case. 61% of animals that have been used for research suffered absolutely no pain. 31% have had their pain numbed by anesthesia. Only 6% of animals tested actually experienced pain. The misconception of millions of animals being tortured is extremely wrong. 6% is not very many animals that actually experience any type of pain. Also, the pain is usually helpful to show how the procedure would harm humans. The animals’ pain actually saves human beings pain. Animal Testers are seen as the “bad guys”, when less than one dog/cat is used for research and studies for every 50 destroyed by animal pounds across the country. Millions and millions of animals are euthanized when they cannot be taken care of in a shelter anymore. Another assumption made with animal testing is that it is mostly dogs and cats. However, less than 1.5% of testing is done on these species of animals. Humans share 95% of the genes with a mouse, which makes them a great model for the human body (Animal R...
Current animal testing has been a contentious subject ever since it started off 150 years back. Although a lot of people discover animal testing inhumane and egoistic, it is a important factor to boost our understanding of medication and to improve our understanding of science. Animal testing, to some, is the way to ameliorating our level of living and preserving many lives, and therefore has many benefits. On the other hand, the negatives may not be passed, and scientists are constantly trying to decrease the damages with some methods they create in the process. Even so, to the dismay of numerous animal lovers in addition to those who are endeavoring for animal rights, animal testing will not be stopped every time soon because, for now, it is the most trustworthy form of testing that includes the safety of daily products we use more carefully than any other procedure.
Animals are currently being tested all over the world. They are being tested for things such as cosmetics, prescriptions drugs, and used for scientific testing. It is estimated that over 100 million animals are used for testing. Rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, and monkeys are common animals used to test newly developed products. These testing procedures and conditions in which these animal must live are widely scrutinized among animal activists. There are many heated debates on whether or not animals should be used for testing. Current government regulations require that all new production available for human consumption undergo animal testing. New procedures for animal testing are necessary to allow the researchers to meet government regulations and to appease animal activists. Animal research should be ended, it is wrong to assume that animals do not feel pain or anguish as they endure needles, pain, diseases, and death.
Mc Lellan A (2009) The nurse patient relationship will prove key to effective medication adherence. Nursing Times 105(3).29
Animal testing is the running of tests and the research done in a laboratory on animals. Some of the tests are done to benefit human lives and other tests are done to determine side effects of a certain household or cosmetic products. It is a topic that has been up for debate for many years not only in the United States, but all around the world. While some support the advances that come from the research others oppose the cruelty that the media projects to society. No matter what one’s opinion of the subject is, it is still something that our society and culture deals with.
Each year in the United States close to 26 million animals including, mice, rabbits, cats, dogs, and most commonly chimpanzees are tested both for scientific research and conventional research. Animals are tested in treatments to determine how a drug or treatment will affect a human being, and several more health care purposes. This is nothing new though, animal testing has been practiced since 500 BC. Animal testing is both morally and ethically wrong and needs to be put to a stop.
For decades, using animals in research to examine the safety of products has been a controversial problem. Some people say that testing on animals has brought benefits to human welfare in many ways. Others disagree, believing testing on animals is cruel and inhumane. Both sides have their own opinions, and neither of them is wrong. By doing research on the Internet and in books, I have decided to support testing on animals. Animal testing is more efficient to advance human and animal welfare and has contributed to many cures and treatments for illnesses that could harm both mankind and also animals.
Therapy is the most commonly used treatment for symptoms. A variety of therapy treatments are offered for patients based on their specific characteristics and what th...
Medication adherence is defined by the World Health Organization as "the degree to which the person's behaviour corresponds with the agreed recommendations from a health care provider”. Medication adherence is a behavioural process that is influenced by many factors, assuming the patient has the knowledge, motivation, skills and resources to follow the health care provider’s prescription. Adherence is an important modifier of health system effectiveness
Medication non-adherence is one of factors that lead to therapy failure. There are 30% to 60% of the patients who are non-adherence to their medication and this may create a series of problems. Medication adherence mean by the extent where patients are able to follow or implement to the prescribed medication. On the other hand, the meaning of medication non-adherence is patients failed to follow the medication prescribed by health care professionals. [1]