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Review: evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to assist patients’ adherence to prescribed medications is limited

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QUESTION: In patients with medical or mental disorders (but not addictions), are interventions designed to assist patients’ adherence to self administered prescribed medications effective?

Data sources

Studies were identified by searching Medline, CINAHL, PsycLIT, SOCIOFILE, IPA, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, and the Cochrane Library (all from 1967 to August 2001). Bibliographies of relevant articles were reviewed, and authors of included studies were asked to suggest other published or unpublished trials that had been missed.

Study selection

Studies were selected if they were unconfounded randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of an intervention to improve adherence with self administered prescribed medications for a medical or psychiatric disorder, measured both medication adherence and treatment outcome, had ≥80% follow up of each group studied, and duration of follow up for studies with positive initial findings was ≥6 months.

Data extraction

Data were extracted on sample size, details of intervention …

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Footnotes

  • Sources of funding: Population Health Information Project studentship; Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Kidney Foundation of Canada and Associated Medical Services/Wilson Postgraduate Fellowships.

  • For correspondence: Dr R B Haynes, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University Medical Centre, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. bhaynes{at}mcmaster.ca

  • A modified version of this abstract appears in APC Journal Club.