Patient-reported underuse of prescription medications: a comparison of nine surveys
UMass Chan Affiliations
Meyers Primary Care InstituteDepartment of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine
Document Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2006-08-19Keywords
AdolescentAdult
Aged
Drug Prescriptions
Female
Health Care Surveys
Health Services Misuse
Health Status
Humans
Insurance Coverage
Male
Middle Aged
Patient Compliance
Self Administration
Social Class
United States
Health Services Research
Primary Care
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Nine national surveys documenting patient underuse of prescription medications were examined to describe the variation and trends in that underuse and identify possible reasons for the substantially different rates that were reported. Underuse includes unfilled prescriptions, delayed therapy, reduced frequency, and lowered dosage. Rates of cost-related patient underuse in the studies ranged from 1.6 to 22 percent. Insurance coverage, level of wealth, age, and health status were the sociodemographic variables most strongly related to underuse. Seven additional factors in the design and administration of the surveys were identified as providing plausible explanations for the variance across surveys. The most conspicuous variation was between three government-sponsored periodic surveys and six generally one-time assessments, with the latter yielding higher rates and greater variance in underuse. Understanding the factors contributing to the variation in reported rates of underuse of medications is an important prerequisite for the design of effective prescription-drug benefit programs.Source
Med Care Res Rev. 2006 Aug;63(4):427-46. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1177/1077558706288845Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/36999PubMed ID
16847072Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1177/1077558706288845