Effect on Treatment Adherence of Distributing Essential Medicines at No Charge: The CLEAN Meds Randomized Clinical Trial.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Nonadherence to treatment with medicines is common globally, even for life-saving treatments. Cost is one important barrier to access, and only some jurisdictions provide medicines at no charge to patients.

Objective

To determine whether providing essential medicines at no charge to outpatients who reported not being able to afford medicines improves adherence.

Design, setting, and participants

A multicenter, unblinded, parallel, 2-group, superiority, outcomes assessor-blinded, individually randomized clinical trial conducted at 9 primary care sites in Ontario, Canada, enrolled 786 patients between June 1, 2016, and April 28, 2017, who reported cost-related nonadherence. Follow-up occurred at 12 months. The primary analysis was performed using an intention-

SUBMITTER: Persaud N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6784757 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature