Primary medication non-adherence: analysis of 195,930 electronic prescriptions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Non-adherence to essential medications represents an important public health problem. Little is known about the frequency with which patients fail to fill prescriptions when new medications are started ("primary non-adherence") or predictors of failure to fill.

Objective

Evaluate primary non-adherence in community-based practices and identify predictors of non-adherence.

Participants

75,589 patients treated by 1,217 prescribers in the first year of a community-based e-prescribing initiative.

Design

We compiled all e-prescriptions written over a 12-month period and used filled claims to identify filled prescriptions. We calculated primary adherence and non-adherence rates for all e-prescriptions and for new medication starts and compared the rates acr

SUBMITTER: Fischer MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2842539 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature