Adherence to prescription medications among medical professionals

Background. We evaluated adherence to medication usage by health care professionals to estimate the expected upper limit of adherence among the general population. Methods. In a self-administered survey, physicians and nurses were asked about their use of prescribed medications for acute and chronic illnesses. The settings were a teaching hospital, employee health service, medical college, and educational conferences. Results. Among 435 respondents, 301 physicians and nurses had medications prescribed for acute and/or chronic illnesses within 2 years of the survey. Of 610 prescribed medications, ≥80% were taken as prescribed, with a 77% compliance rate for short-term medications and 84% for long-term medications. Older age was associated with better adherence, whereas a greater number of doses per day was associated with poorer adherence. Conclusions. Approximately 80% of respondents reported properly taking prescription medications ≥80% of the time. Given the nature of the study population, it is unlikely that a nonclinical trial population will consistently achieve better adherence without specific interventions.