A patient compliance survey in a general medical clinic

To examine the level of compliance with regard to the administration of medications in a general medical clinic of a regional teaching hospital in Hong Kong.

Patients who had been taking the prescribed medications for the last 12 months and who had received their prescriptions from the clinic pharmacy during their last visit were interviewed. The level of drug compliance was measured. Patients who had greater than one-tenth of the drug supply remaining from last visit were considered to be non-compliant, those who had less than one-tenth of the total drug supply but did not adhere to the regimen were considered to be partially compliant, and patients who took 90% or more of their prescribed medications were considered to be compliant.

Of the 61 patients interviewed, 12 (19.7%) were non-compliant and 21 (34.4%) were partially compliant. Reasons for poor treatment compliance included appearance or worsening of symptoms during therapy, disappearance of symptoms, concomitant medications from other physicians, forgetfulness due to lifestyle factors, working conditions or complexity of regimen. Five (8.2%) patients had visited other doctors since their last hospital clinic visit, but most of them did not inform these doctors about their regular medications.

In this pilot study, 50% of patients on long-term medical therapy (at least 12 months) were non-compliant or only partially compliant. Apart from drug wastage and sub-optimal patient care, apparent treatment failure may lead to inappropriate increase in dosage, addition of another medication or change to a more potent or expensive preparation. Failure of patients to inform other doctors about their therapy may also result in duplicative therapy, drug interactions and more drug wastage. Pharmacists should take an active role to educate patients about the appropriate use of drugs and reinforce treatment compliance.