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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Drugs Outcomes Research and Policies
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1390629
This article is part of the Research Topic Recent Advances in Attempts to Improve Medication Adherence – from basic research to clinical practice - Volume II View all 18 articles

Identifying and presenting key country-specific indicators related to medication adherence: A comprehensive study across European countries

Provisionally accepted
Tamas Agh Tamas Agh 1*Kristina Garuolienė Kristina Garuolienė 2Anne Gerd Granas Anne Gerd Granas 3,4João Gregório João Gregório 5Nilay Aksoy Nilay Aksoy 6Nataliia Khanyk Nataliia Khanyk 7,8Maja Ortner Hadžiabdić Maja Ortner Hadžiabdić 9Przemyslaw Kardas Przemyslaw Kardas 10
  • 1 Syreon Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary
  • 2 Pharmacy Center, Institute of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania
  • 3 Section for Pharmaceutics and Social Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  • 4 Norwegian Centre for E-health Research, Tromsø, Troms, Norway
  • 5 CBIOS, Universidade Lusófona Research Center for Biosciences & Health Technologies, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 6 Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Altinbas University, Istanbul, Türkiye
  • 7 Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden
  • 8 Department of Pharmacy, Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University, Lviv, Ukraine
  • 9 Department of Applied Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 10 Medication Adherence Research Centre, Department of Family Medicine, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study tackles the critical challenge of medication non-adherence in healthcare by pinpointing indicators related to medication adherence (IRMAs) across 39 European countries and Israel. Utilizing a structured expert survey methodology within the European Network to Advance Best Practices and Technology on Medication Adherence (ENABLE; COST Action CA19132), our research identified key country-specific IRMAs and collected data on these indicators to understand the multifaceted nature of medication adherence. The research was conducted in two phases: firstly, defining key IRMAs through a two-round expert survey, and secondly, gathering country-specific data on these IRMAs through literature reviews and additional expert surveys. The study revealed a diverse range of 26 top-ranked IRMAs, including six related to country characteristics, four to social/economic factors, three each to therapy-related and patient-related factors, one to condition-related factors, and nine to healthcare system-related factors. The availability of country-specific data on these IRMAs varied among the countries, highlighting the need for more comprehensive data collection and research. The findings from this study not only underscore the complexity of predicting medication adherence but also lay the groundwork for developing targeted, country-specific interventions to improve adherence. Moreover, this research offers valuable insights for policymakers, highlighting the importance of understanding the multifaceted nature of medication adherence and offering a valuable resource in formulating targeted health policies to enhance health outcomes and reduce the economic burden associated with medication non-adherence.

    Keywords: Medication Adherence, Persistence, Health Policy, indicator, Europe without conducting any comparative analysis

    Received: 23 Feb 2024; Accepted: 24 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Agh, Garuolienė, Granas, Gregório, Aksoy, Khanyk, Ortner Hadžiabdić and Kardas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tamas Agh, Syreon Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.