What is Patient non-compliance?

Patient non-compliance simply means that a patient forgets to take his or her medication. Patient compliance solutions then are aimed at helping patients become more compliant or rigorous in their medication taking. The end goal is that if you continue your treatment as prescribed, you will remain on the right road - a shortcut to better health.

50% of patients forget to take their medication*
In fact, the average patient forgets every second dose, so yes patients do need a reminder and a motivation to keep on taking their full course of prescribed medication. Otherwise they may face a relapse, hospitalization or in severe cases - death.

Why?
There are many reasons why patients don't continue on a certain course of medication, however it is certainly an established fact that every second patient, especially those assigned to long term treatments, discontinue their compliance.

Clinical study
A study in Italy (Delgi, EL et al, Clin Ther, 2002) involving nearly 17,000 patients in anti-hypertensive treatment revealed that 65 per cent of patients had opted out of their treatment after one year.

Definition
Drug regime compliance is defined as the degree of correspondence between actual dosing history and the prescribed regimen. This means that the administration-intake of a correct dose of the drug must take place at a defined time (compliance), and that the patient will continue doing so for the whole period of treatment (persistence).

* WHO Report (2003), “ Adherence to Long-Term Therapies, Evidence for Action”