Identifying Reasons for Non-adherence in Patients With Multi-morbidity

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The study will be carried out during pharmacist-conducted medication reconciliation. The pharmacist will ask how the patient has been taking the prescribed medicines and whether any over-the-counter medicines and food supplements have been used for self-medication. The data will be analyzed for descriptive statistics to identify 1) the number of discrepancies between the physician's prescription orders and the patient's self-reported use of the medicines, 2) what kind of discrepancies there are, and 3) which of them negatively influence patients' medicine taking.

Detailed Description
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This study aims to identify patient-reported reasons for medication non-adherence during pharmacist-led medication reconciliation in primary care. The investigators will examine medication discrepancies between physicians' prescription orders and patients' self-reported medication use, which medicines patients most often use against physician's order, and the reasons for the variant use of medicines. Additionally, the investigators will study the correlation between medication discrepancies and the number of medicines the patient uses. The investigators also aim to investigate which medicines can be classified as high-risk medicines for non-adherence. The research method will contain a pharmacist-conducted medication reconciliation including a patient interview in a 30-minute appointment. Physicians, nurses, and pharmacists identify patients who are eligible for this study. The study will include 250 patients who visit the public health centres in Vantaa, Southern Finland. Medication reconciliation will take place at the admission to the health centre, usually before physicians' appointments. A pharmacist will go through all medicines physicians have prescribed, over-the-counter medicines (OTC) and food supplements one by one to assess the actual medicine used by the patient. If a pharmacist identifies medication discrepancies between physician's prescriptions and patient's self-reported use of medicine during the medication reconciliation, she/he will find out the patients' reasons for adjusting the medication. Based on this process pharmacist formulates the updated medication list, including clinically appropriate over-the-counter medicines (OTC medicines) in the patient record system Apotti, where the physician will once more make sure that everything is in order. The pharmacist will advise the patient to clarify the possible misunderstandings or concerns toward medications and motivate the patient to use the medication as prescribed. The outcome of the discussion is documented. The data will be analyzed by descriptive statistical analysis. The patients' reported reasons for medication discrepancies will be analyzed quantitatively, and central themes and subthemes will be classified. The risk ratio will be identified, i.e., the relative risk among the number of medicines and medication discrepancies. The investigators will compare the total number of patients' medicine, including non-prescription medicine, to medicine the patient is using differently as prescribed and calculate the possible comparative risk adjusting the medicine with the number of prescribed medicines. The investigators will also identify the high-risk medications for non-adherence. The investigators will analyze patients' need for information on medicines as the patient receives guidance and encouragement when the pharmacist identifies discrepancies. The data will be analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 26 software.

Official Title
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Identifying Reasons for Non-adherence in Patients With Multi-morbidity: A Protocol for Prospective Observational Study in Primary Care

Conditions
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Chronic Disease, Medication Adherence, Medication Nonadherence

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Medication reconciliation


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Patients with multimorbidity Patients with ≥5 prescription medicines Finnish speaking Living at home and managing daily life independently Willingness to take part and sign the informed consent Exclusion Criteria: Patients not understand Finnish Diagnosed Alzheimer or another memory disorder Need help to manage daily life End of life care

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 55 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Patients with multimorbidity<br>Patients with multimorbidity who visit the public health centres in Vantaa, Southern Finland | Behavioral: Medication reconciliation<br>* A pharmacist will go through all medicines physicians have prescribed, over-the-counter medicines (OTC) and food supplements one by one to assess the actual medicine used by the patient. If a pharmacist identifies medication discrepancies between physician's prescriptions and patient's self-reported use of medicine during the medication reconciliation, she/he will find out the patients' reasons for adjusting the medication.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Medication discrepancy | Comparison of actual use of medicines versus prescribed medicines | Through study completion, an average of 3 months | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The groups of medicines | The medicines that are used differently as prescribes are classified in anatomical therapeutic chemical groups | Through study completion, an average of 3 months | 
| The reason for non-adherence | Patient reported reasons for not taking medicines as prescribed | Through study completion, an average of 3 months | 
| The effectiveness of medication information | Will the patient consider taking the medication as prescribed after the discussion with the pharmacist | Through study completion, an average of 3 months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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primary care, medication reconciliation, pharmacist, public health, medication adherence, nonadherence, self-management, chronic disease, multimorbidity