Abstract
Purpose :
It has been estimated that 50% of glaucoma patients are not adherent to their regimen of glaucoma medications over 75% of the time.Side effects, cost, and complex regimens have been implicated as reasons for poor medication adherence.We sought to elucidate if numbers of medications, monthly medication cost, and side effects were amongst the reasons that individuals miss doses of their medications.
Methods :
This was a prospective cohort study.119 patients completed an in-person questionnaire about their medication adherence and most common reasons they missed doses. Primary outcome measured was medication recall based upon a 3 point scale (1 point each for correct identification of; medication, eye, and dosing regimen).Multivariate analysis compared medication recall in patients with numbers of medications, monthly medication cost, and side effect profile.
Results :
Mean age was 69.73 ± 12.86 (±SD years), 37.3% male and 62.7% female.Medication recall score was 2.6 ± 0.9 (mean ±SD).Number of medications patients reported using was 2.1 ± 0.9 (mean ±SD).Of 112 respondents only 2 responded that the number of medications caused them to miss doses.Of 91 respondents, 42.9% reported monthly glaucoma medication cost between $1 and $50, 11% reported paying over $100. 6 patients (5.4%) (mean monthly cost of $136.25) reported cost caused them to miss doses.Recall score of those who reported cost prevents them from taking medications was 2.5 ±1.2 (mean ±SD), the score of those who didn’t was 2.6 ± 0.8, (t = 0.85).31% of patients reported negative side effects from their glaucoma medication, (recall score 2.7 ± 0.8), 6.1% of patients reported negative side effects prevented them from taking drops (medication recall score 2.3 ± 1.2), (t = 0.53).
Conclusions :
The information gathered from this study assessed the relationship between medication recall and three reasons patients might not adhere to their prescribed regimens: number of medications, monthly cost, and side effects. A limited number of patients reported that these factors caused missed doses, no differences in medication recall were observed. More work needs to be done to explore these issues, determine reasons for poor adherence, and improve the ways in which we manage our patients’ glaucoma medically.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.