If medication non adherence were a disease, it would be an epidemic

What is medication non adherence?

Medication non-adherence is most simply defined as the number of medicines doses not taken / missed or taken incorrectly that affects the patient's expected treatment outcome. There could be various reason for non-adherence, the most common is just forgetting to take medicines. But this is not the only reason, many times patients do not take medicine because of their poor knowledge about the disease and medicine. Sometimes patients modify their medicine dose by their own like taking half tablets. All these are various forms of medicine non-adherence

Medicine non adherence: Is this a problem?

The treatment of chronic illnesses like diabetes and cardiac disorders commonly need the lifelong use of medicines. Although modern medications are very effective in fighting disease, but their full benefits are often not realized because approximately 50% of patients do not take their medications as prescribed ^{2, 3} 

Poor medication adherence has been linked to several adverse outcomes including disease progression, disease complications, lower quality of life, increased doctor visits, hospitalizations, and premature death. As per studies even in USA where the level of health literacy is far better than other developing countries, one patient die every 5 min due to non-adherence related issues.

Medicine non adherence: Is action really required?

According to the World Health Organization “Increasing the effectiveness of adherence interventions may have a far greater impact on the health of the population than any improvement in specific medical treatments,”  Hence, there is an urgent need to bring social awareness about non adherence and also develop tools and resources which can help patient to improve their adherence behavior.

Medicine non adherence: Leveraging smart phone

Non Adherence is a very personalized and behavioral problem.

Smart phone being the most closest and personalized device to every modern man and can be leveraged effectively to address this silent epidemic.

Medment app is one of its kind smart phone application especially designed to improve patients adherence behavior.

Medment Talking alarms not only reminds patients to take Medicine on time but it also provides Information about the prescribed medicine, disease, food and exercise in 10 Indian languages. It also helps patients to stay connected with doctors via app.

Medment app empowers family members of the patients to play their role in improving the patient’s medicine adherence

Medment app also enables doctors to analyze their patients’ adherence from their app. They can also send paid mobile prescription to the patients from any part of the world. 

 #AbNahiBhulenge campaign by Medment app is an initiative to raise public awareness about medicine non adherence. Under this initiative Medment team is Organizing AbNahiBhulenge camps at various hospitals and private clinics. In this camps patients are sensitized about non adherence and asked to take the pledge with #AbNahiBhulenge banner and bands.

why do you forget your medicine?

You usually wear pants.. and also never forget to brush your teeth... Then why do you forget your medicine?

Patients struggling with adhering to their medicine schedule always have a reason for it. Always. There are lots of reasons why people neglect to take their medicine properly. The most common reason is that they just forget, which seems innocent enough. Through the years we all would have heard every reason, rationalization or excuse in the book for being noncompliant.

But to get maximum benefit from medications, it is important to take them exactly as prescribed by the doctor. In fact, chances of better health outcomes improves when we take our medications as directed.

Lets understand why people don't take their medicines-

Ø  They don't know why they need the drug

Ø  They don't know how and when to take the drug

Ø  They don't know how to store the drug

Ø  They don't know what might happen if they don't take the drug as prescribed

Hence it's very important to create awareness among patients as to why a medicine is prescribed. Lets categorize the work of medicine into 4 types:

Ø  Medicine to prevent you from becoming unwell - e.g. A vaccination of Polio protects against Polio disease.

Ø  Medicine to treat the symptoms of your condition - e.g. A painkiller for toothache

Ø  Medicine to control your condition - e.g. In hypertension you need  medicine to control  your blood pressure , in diabetes you need medicine to control your sugar level

Ø  Medicine can cure your condition - e.g. An antibiotic to treat certain infections.

So now that we know the role of medicine, it's important to make patients aware that-

Ø  Medicine should be taken on time as prescribed by doctor

Ø  Any dose adjustment should be first discussed with doctor.

Ø  Use of lower doses can lead to a lack of benefit.

Ø  Use of higher-than-prescribed doses increases the risk of adverse effects.

Hence, it's extremely important that you take medicine as prescribed by your doctor. If you are Diabetic, Hypertensive or suffer from any other chronic disease it's very important to include your medicine schedule in your daily routine habits.

So people, Forgetting your medicine.. should not be an option now!

Use MedmentApp to get timely reminders to take your medicines and also to understand about your medicine and its importance. 

Are you Diabetic?

Do you really know what is Diabetes? Do you think knowledge about your disease would make you more compliant ?

Then download Medment App. Medment helps you to understand about your disease in simplified way via animation films in 10 Indian languages.