Improving Medication Adherence Levels in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Patients: A Narrative Evidence-Based Review

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology
• Pharmacology
• Health Psychology

Background:

• Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) management involves complex, long-term medication regimens.
• This complexity presents significant challenges to patient medication adherence (MA).
• Numerous interventions exist to improve MA in IBD patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and categorize patient-level interventions aimed at improving MA in IBD.
• To synthesize evidence on the efficacy of different intervention types.
• To identify promising strategies for enhancing medication adherence in IBD management.

Main Methods:

• Narrative, evidence-based review of patient-level interventions for IBD MA.
• Categorization of interventions into educational, behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, and multicomponent groups.
• Analysis of reported efficacy of these interventions.

Main Results:

• Interventions for IBD MA yielded mixed results.
• Multicomponent interventions, combining various approaches, showed the most promise.
• MA is influenced by patient, disease, therapy, socioeconomic, and health system factors.

Conclusions:

• Effective IBD MA improvement likely requires multifaceted patient-level interventions.
• Integration of policy and system-level strategies is crucial for maximizing adherence.
• Study heterogeneity in MA assessment and intervention duration may impact findings.