A Comprehensive Framework for Improving Patient Adherence in Indian Pharmaceutical Scenario

Abstract

The poor adherence level towards medications and treatment is the common cause found among chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and hyperlipidemia that further cause high mortality rate worldwide. The perspective of 5 major stakeholders of healthcare segments i.e. patient perspective, Hospital Perspective, Doctor Perspective, Pharmaceutical Industry Perspective and Government perspective has been studied to understand the need of awareness towards diseases and related medications and treatment for better quality life. The sources of the samples were identified and the data was collected from patients suffering from CVDs through well-structured questionnaire and from doctors treating CVDs patients through interview scheduled. The total sample size was 757 and 25 for patients and doctors respectively from the hospitals of Delhi- NCR. This study had identified six factors for medication adherence of patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases through factor analysis. They were Level of patient s awareness, Act in conformity and family support, Extrinsic support, Cognizance, Security and feedback, Complicated prescriptive regimen and Medication holiday. Further, Regression analysis resulted into four significant predictors (Level of patient s awareness, Act in conformity and family support, Cognizance, security and feedback and Complicated prescriptive regimen) for improving patient adherence level and factors such as Extrinsic support and Medication holiday are insignificant. Content analysis on doctor s data had resulted into four categories, i.e. Monetary aspect of treatment, Patient adherence effect, Doctor involvement and Medication adherence level with their sub-categories. On the basis of results obtained, the recommendations were further provided for the implementation of strategies to improve the medication adherence level of patients suffering from cardiovascular disease (chronic illness).