Patient desire to be involved in medication treatment decisions

To identify unmet needs of patients taking medications for chronic health conditions and identify medication-related services that patients with chronic health conditions would desire.

Descriptive, exploratory, nonexperimental study.

Large midwestern state in spring 2010.

465 patients 45 years or older taking one or more prescriptions for chronic health problems.

Cross-sectional survey.

Patient-reported usefulness of, satisfaction with, and intention to use medication-related services.

Respondents wanted to be highly involved in treatment decisions but found medication information they received to be moderately useful and satisfactory. Medication-related services fell into three groups based on reported intention to use: therapy advice, cost advice, and medication organization. Desire to be involved in treatment decisions was a key factor in predicting reported intention to use therapy advice and cost advice services. The perceived affordability of medications was another important factor in patients' intention to use cost advice and medication organization services. Age, chronic conditions, number of prescription drugs, and the cost of therapy were not important in predicting the intention to use medication-related services in this population.

Patient desire to be involved in treatment decisions was a key factor in explaining intention to use medication-related services. Identifying individuals with desire for involvement in treatment decisions may increase medication therapy management (MTM) participation. Strategies to provide personalized MTM services to these individuals should be developed and evaluated.