Medication compliance in Singaporean patients with Alzheimer's disease
Singapore medical journal
; : 154-160, 2019.
Article
in En
| WPRIM
| ID: wpr-777550
Responsible library:
WPRO
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION@#Singapore has a rapidly ageing population and an increasing prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Compliance to AD medications is associated with treatment effectiveness. We investigated compliance to acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist and treatment persistence among patients seen at the General Memory Clinic of National University Hospital, Singapore. We also identified the reasons for non-compliance.@*METHODS@#Patients seen at the General Memory Clinic between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2014, who were prescribed AChEIs and NMDA receptor antagonist, were included in this retrospective cohort study. Non-compliance to medications was indirectly measured by failure to renew prescription within 60 days of the last day of medication supplied by the previous prescription. The reasons for non-compliance were identified.@*RESULTS@#A total of 144 patients were included. At one year, 107 patients were compliant to AD medications, while 37 patients were non-compliant. Around 60% of the non-compliant patients discontinued the use of AD medications within the first six months, and the mean persistent treatment period among this group of patients was 10.3 ± 3.5 months. The main reason for non-compliance was patients' and caregivers' perception that memory loss was of lower priority than other coexisting illnesses. Other reasons for non-compliance included side effects of medications (18.9%), perceived ineffectiveness of treatment (16.2%), inability to attend clinic (5.4%) and high cost of medications (2.7%).@*CONCLUSION@#Our findings suggest that the reasons for medication non-compliance can be identified early. Better compliance may be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach to patient education.
Key words
Full text:
1
Database:
WPRIM
Main subject:
Psychology
/
Quality of Life
/
Singapore
/
Cholinesterase Inhibitors
/
Epidemiology
/
Retrospective Studies
/
Patient Compliance
/
Treatment Outcome
/
Drug Costs
/
Caregivers
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspects:
Patient_preference
Limits:
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
Singapore medical journal
Year:
2019
Document type:
Article