Analysis of Factors Affecting Medication Compliance of Outpatients

Lee, Eui-Kyung; Park, Jeong-Young

Journal of Korean Society Quality Assurance Health Care 2002;9(2): 164.
Published online December 30, 2002.

의료기관 외래 이용자의 복약순응 관련 요인분석

이의경, 박정영

한국보건사회연구원 보건의료연구실

Analysis of Factors Affecting Medication Compliance of Outpatients

Eui-Kyung Lee, Jeong-Young Park

Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs Department of Health Research

Abstract

Background
The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of medication compliance of outpatients and to analyze the factors contributing to medication non-compliance
Methods
Telephone survey was conducted to the 1,000 outpatients who visited medical institutions during the period from January 2002 to April 2002. Subjects were randomly selected from the telephone directories of the nation, and the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents such as age, gender and region were matched based on those of outpatients in 2001.
Results
The results of survey revealed that those who complied with doctors' regimen in the right way accounted for 82.4%. The compliance increased with the strong belief in the medication, less unwanted side effects and inconvenience, more severity of disease, and lower perceived health status. Compliance rate was also higher in the patients group who experienced the drug education by the pharmacists than those who did not.
Conclusion
In order to improve drug compliance, drug information on efficacy, adverse reaction, drug interactions, and basic disease information are to be provided to the patients. Drug education needs to be focused not only on providing knowledge of drugs and diseases but also changing attitude on drug use of the patients.

Key words Medication compliance;Drug information;Patient education;Separation of prescribing and dispensing;