Medication beliefs strongly affect individuals' management of chronic diseases, expert says
October 15, 2012 by Kate Mcintyre in Health
(Medical Xpress)—Nearly half of patients taking medications for chronic conditions do not strictly follow their prescribed medication regimens. Failure to use medications as directed increases patients' risk for side effects, hospitalizations, reduced quality of life and shortened lifespans. Now, a University of Missouri gerontological nursing expert says patients' poor adherence to prescribed medication regimens is connected to their beliefs about the necessity of prescriptions and concerns about long-term effects and dependency.
MU Assistant Professor Todd Ruppar found that patients' beliefs about the causes of high blood pressure and the effectiveness of treatment alternatives significantly affected their likelihood of faithfully following prescribed medication regimens. In his pilot study, Ruppar focused on older patients' adherence to medication treatments that control high blood pressure, a condition that affects nearly 70 million adults in the U.S. and can lead to heart disease and stroke.
"Often, patients with chronic diseases are prescribed medications but they already have underlying beliefs about the causes of high blood pressure and how it can be treated, which leads them to underuse their medications," Ruppar said. "For example, some individuals might be able to reduce their blood pressure by walking or cutting down on salt consumption; however, most people need medication to reduce their risk of adverse health outcomes."
Rather than relying on education approaches, Ruppar says practitioners should aim to amend patients' behaviors using tactics such as electronic pill bottle caps that alert patients to take medications at specific times or more frequent monitoring of their blood pressure levels so they associate medication adherence with health benefits and non-adherence with negative side effects.
"Patients benefit from objective feedback to see what led them to miss doses, such as varying sleep patterns or weekend schedules. Then, they can change their routines to make taking doses as habitual as brushing their teeth," Ruppar said. "Self-management is important because encounters with health care providers are fairly short, so as patients, we tend to have better outcomes if we work with our providers to manage our chronic conditions."
More information: The study, "Medication Beliefs and Antihypertensive Adherence Among Older Adults: A Pilot Study," was published in Geriatric Nursing.
Provided by
University of Missouri-Columbia
-
Integrating medication regimens into daily routines can improve adherence
Sep 19, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Physicians don't adequately monitor patients' medication adherence
Jul 16, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Depression associated with poor medication adherence in patients with chronic illnesses
May 10, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Take your blood pressure meds before bed
Oct 24, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Can text messaging improve medication adherence?
May 24, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras
Apr 15, 2011
- More from Physics Forums - Independent Research
More news stories
Consumers largely underestimating calorie content of fast food
People eating at fast food restaurants largely underestimate the calorie content of meals, especially large ones, according to a paper published today in BMJ.
Health
6 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
It's not your imagination: Memory gets muddled at menopause
Don't doubt it when a woman harried by hot flashes says she's having a hard time remembering things. A new study published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), helps confirm with o ...
Health
7 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Farm bill: Senate rejects GMO labeling amendment
The Senate has overwhelmingly rejected an amendment allowing states to require labeling of genetically modified foods.
Health
8 hours ago |
not rated yet |
1
McDonald's can't shake criticism about nutrition
(AP)—McDonald's once again faced criticism that it's a purveyor of junk food that markets to children at its annual shareholder meeting Thursday.
Health
9 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Economic incentives increase blood donation without negative consequences
Can economic incentives such as gift cards, T-shirts, and time off from work motivate members of the public to increase their donations of blood?
Health
11 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
|
Controlling mood through the motions of mitochondria
(Medical Xpress)—Regulating the distribution of power in neurons is done by a system that makes the national electric grid look simple by comparison. Each neuron has several thousand mitochondria confined ...
ACP issues recommendations for management of high blood glucose in hospitalized patients
High blood glucose is associated with poor outcomes in hospitalized patients, and use of intensive insulin therapy (IIT) to control hyperglycemia is a common practice in hospitals. But the recent evidence does not show a ...
Motion quotient: IQ predicted by ability to filter motion (w/ video)
A brief visual task can predict IQ, according to a new study. This surprisingly simple exercise measures the brain's unconscious ability to filter out visual movement. The study shows that individuals whose ...
Multiple research teams unable to confirm high-profile Alzheimer's study
Teams of highly respected Alzheimer's researchers failed to replicate what appeared to be breakthrough results for the treatment of this brain disease when they were published last year in the journal Science.
Scientists discover molecule triggers sensation of itch
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health report they have discovered in mouse studies that a small molecule released in the spinal cord triggers a process that is later experienced in the brain as ...
Researchers find common childhood asthma unconnected to allergens or inflammation
Little is known about why asthma develops, how it constricts the airway or why response to treatments varies between patients. Now, a team of researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College, Columbia University Medical Center ...