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Medication adherence interventions: where are we and where do we go?

ejhpharm · 2025-10-24 · canonical JSON source

5 visible annotations · policy: published · automated confidence ≥ 75.00%

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Decades ago, WHO identified low adherence (defined as the extent to which a person’s behaviour regarding medication corresponds with agreed recommendations from a healthcare provider) to medications for chronic illnesses as a significant societal challenge, emphasising that fewer than 50% of people adhere to their medication regimens.1 In one of the largest studies on the subject, the authors concluded that the long-term survival benefits associated with improved drug adherence appear to be class specific, suggesting that adherence improvements are influenced by patients' overall behaviour ‘healthy adherer’ and drug effects.2 In another study, the authors found that improving antidiabetic medication adherence could reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and long-term all-cause mortality.3 These findings align with WHO’s assertion that ‘the increased effectiveness of adherence interventions may have a far greater impact on the health of the population than any other specific medical treatment’.1