Many Losers In Patient Medication Quiz

10-15-2007 | Categories:

Patients Unable to Provide Names of Their Medications

This post started out as another of those How About That? items.

This news release version of a study to be published in the November issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine resolves to a single punchline,

Almost 40% of 119 patients taking blood pressure medication
in three clinics could not accurately recall the drugs they were taking.

Commentary

Those familiar with AlignMap posts on health literacy¹ will not find that result (nor the additional fact that the “number jumped to 60 percent for those with low health literacy”) surprising.

This is a specific area within patient compliance - noncompliance by error - that, it would seem, could be directly addressed by treatment plan presentation protocols, technology, and didactic efforts. And, in fact, I have come across some promising ideas lately.

Consequently, the next AlignMap posts will deal with pragmatic tips for decreasing medication noncompliance by error with methods now available.

How about that?

Source: Name that drug: Many patients can’t

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