Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Complexity
54%of patients older
than 65 take more than
three medications daily.
Asymptomatic conditions
45% of patients with high
cholesterol (an asymptotic
condition) vs. 28% with high
blood pressure have low rate of
adherence to medicinal regimen
Side Effects
45% do not take medications
due to side effects
Medication-related
Patient-related
Perceived Efficacy
Over 40% of patient non-adherence
is related to poor perceived efficacy
Forgetfulness
60% of patients cannot recall
physician instructions 45min.
after the consultation
Pharmacy Operations
Thousands of pharmacies must divert
time and cannot efficiently fill
prescriptions because information
needed to obtain reimbursement
frequently does not appear
on a patient's drug
benefit card
Prescriber-related
Pharmacy-related
Condition-related
Poor Communication
Only 64% of patients and
30% of pharmacists were told by
the physician how the medications
need to be taken
Fig. 11.1
Factors that lead to poor adherence
disconnect between consumers' beliefs and their actual adherence behaviors
(National Council on Patient Education and Information
2007
). For example, 3 out of
10 consumers had stopped taking a medicine before the dosed supply was fi nished and
almost one-third of consumers had not even fi lled a prescription they were given.
Industry studies like this one provide the fi rst step by gathering statistics that demon-
strate the discrepancy between patient beliefs and adherence behaviors. However, what
is missing to date is an industry-specifi c systematic study of the underlying consumer
processes that drive this discrepancy. Our goal with this chapter is to take the fi rst step
in this direction by culling from the vast body of work in consumer behavior those
theories of consumer processing that are most directly relevant and applicable for this
pharmaceutical-specifi c behavioral problem. Further, we focus our chapter not on all
possible patient-related factors, but specifi cally on
perceived effi cacy
for two funda-
mental reasons: (1) perceptions of poor product effi cacy is one of the primary reasons
for non-adherence with a particular medicine (Berg et al.
1993
), and (2) over 40 % of
patients switch brands and choose alternative medications for any specifi ed condition
due to perceptions of poor effi cacy (Rees
2006
). Thus, effi cacy judgments are signifi -
cant drivers of patient health and well-being and brand health and success.
Importantly, poor effi cacy perceptions can infl uence consumers' medication
choices not only after they begin a medicinal regimen and have direct experience
with the medication, but also prior to use (when they consider the medication as a
Search WWH ::
Custom Search