Nonadherence to medications among pharmacy clients and their attitude toward medications kept a medicine cabinet at home

Jurgita Daukšienė, Raimondas Radžiūnas

Department of Drug Technology and Social Pharmacy, Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania

Key words: gender differences; adherence; nonadherence; pharmacy clients; medicine cabinet at home.

Summary. Objectives. To assess self-reported adherence among pharmacy clients and to detect if there are any differences in medication use or storage between genders.

Material and methods. The data were collected by means of questionnaires. A standard 45-item questionnaire was developed and used to assess adherence and nonadherence to medications. It was distributed to all pharmacy customers who entered pharmacies chosen by us.

Results. Of the 162 (45 men and 117 women) pharmacy clients participating in the study, 36.42% were considered nonadherent. No significant difference in adherence rates between genders was observed (P>0.05). Women more often named themselves as being responsible for a medicine cabinet at home (P<0.001) and used more sources of information on medications (P<0.05). Women also more frequently checked the expiry date of medications in a medicine cabinet home than men (P<0.05).

Conclusions. The problem of nonadherence to medications exists among pharmacy clients. There is no significant difference in the rate of self-reported adherence between male and female pharmacy clients. Women are the ones named as responsible for a medicine cabinet at home. They also are important health decision makers. Women are more interested in information on medicines and their use; therefore, this demand should be satisfied.

Correspondence to J. Daukšienė, Department of Drug Technology and Social Pharmacy, Kaunas University of Medicine, Sukilėlių 51, 50106 Kaunas, Lithuania. E-mail: jurgita.dauksiene@gmail.com

Received 17 June 2008, accepted 7 December 2009