Patient compliance with antimicrobial drugs: A Chinese survey

Antimicrobial therapy is among the mainstream treatment modalities employed in clinical settings. Antimicrobial sensitivity of the pathogen and patient compliance are key determinants of the efficacy of antimicrobial therapy.

In this study, we sought to investigate the factors that affect patient compliance to antimicrobial therapy in a Chinese teaching hospital to enhance patient compliance and to prevent abuse and misuse of antibiotics by patients.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among patients willing to answer all the questions who were prescribed antimicrobial drugs orally, and for whom at least half of the duration of therapy was not under the supervision of a doctor or nurse. Data analyses were performed using Kruskal-Wallis test and multivariate logistic regression.

A total of 720 patients participated in the survey; of these, 714 patients provided complete data and were included in the analysis. Up to 86.97% of patients showed noncompliance to antimicrobial therapy (total compliance score < 8), whereas 13.03% of patients showed good compliance (total compliance score = 8). On multivariate analyses, understanding of the treatment was an important factor associated with compliance.

A range of factors were associated with compliance to antimicrobial therapy, including understanding of the treatment, gender, age, home address, education level, and family income.