ZOOM Pharmacy’s Monthly Medicines Service is designed to make managing multiple medicines easy. Put simply, taking your medicines correctly means you live better for longer, contributing to improved health outcomes and overall wellbeing. In this article we look at medicines adherence, the act of taking your medicines as prescribed, and its benefits.
Medicines can help relieve symptoms, treat illness, manage long-term health conditions, and reduce the risk of future health problems. However, to receive the intended benefits, it is important to take them in the way recommended by your doctor, pharmacist or other healthcare provider.
Taking your medicines as prescribed is known as medicines adherence or medicines compliance.
Fitting multiple medicines into your daily routine can be a challenge. Forgetting a dose, confusing instructions, experiencing side effects, and juggling medicines bottles.
Repeated missed doses, taking the wrong dose, or stopping a medicine without advice can affect how well your treatment works and, in some cases could put your health at risk.
Poor adherence to long-term treatments can reduce their effectiveness and contribute to poorer health outcomes.
Medicines adherence is the act of taking a medicine as prescribed. A report from the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that nearly 50% of patients do not take their medications as prescribed, with approximately 30% failing to fill their first prescription.1
Taking a medicine as prescribed generally means following the instructions provided by your healthcare professional and on the medicine label. This may include:
Our service is designed to make managing multiple medicines easy. Our Monthly Medicines Service is free to eligible patients taking three or more regular medicines.
Not taking your medication as prescribed can put your health and wellbeing at risk, leading to severe health complications, increased use of health services, and premature death.
In Europe alone, it is estimated that poor adherence contributes to nearly 200,000 premature deaths each year.2
The effects of poor medicines adherence will depend on many factors including but not limited to the medicine, the dose, and the health condition being treated. For people with multiple health conditions who take multiple daily medicines, the effects can be wide ranging and serious.
Possible consequences may include:
To get the most out of your medicines, you need to take them correctly. Good medicines adherence can help in several important ways:
To benefit from a medicine as intended it must be taken in the correct way. Some medicines may relieve symptoms quickly, while others need to be taken regularly over weeks, months, years or more to manage chronic health conditions.
Non-adherence, for example caused by missing doses, may mean that the amount of a medicine in your body becomes too low to work as intended.
Long-term conditions are chronic or recurring conditions that require ongoing management over years or decades. They cannot be cured but can be controlled with the use of medication and/or other therapies.
Regular medicines can help control blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, and many other health problems. You may not always be able to feel whether these medicines are working. For example, high blood pressure and high cholesterol may not cause clearly identifiable symptoms. But feeling well or not experiencing symptoms does not necessarily mean the condition has gone away or that the medicine is no longer needed.
Unmanaged or poorly controlled long-term health conditions place you at greater risk of disease progression and complications over time. These complications can include secondary health problems and/or negative health events.
The consequences of poor adherence vary considerably between medicines. For example, it is particularly important to not miss a dose for medicines such as insulin, anticoagulants, or epilepsy medicines.
Following instructions given by prescribers ensures you are taking your medicines at the right dosage, at the right time, in the correct frequency.
Not taking your medicines correctly can cause problems. Taking too little may mean the medicine doesn’t work properly. Taking too much may increase the risk of side effects or accidental poisoning.
Your healthcare provider will look at things like test results, symptoms, or other measurements to determine whether a medicine is working as intended.
Good medicines adherence is very important in ensuring that you and your healthcare provider can accurately understand whether the treatment is working, and identify whether you need more information, a change in treatment or more practical support.
Taking your medicines as prescribed also known as medicines adherence is vitally important for you to receive the full and intended benefits of treatment, manage long-term health conditions and reduce avoidable medicine-related problems.
However, staying on track is not always easy, particularly when you take several medicines or have a complicated routine.
That’s why ZOOM Pharmacy’s Monthly Medicines Service are loved by patients. It makes taking multiple daily medicines easy, so you can get the most out of your medicines and live well.
Our service is designed to make managing multiple medicines easy. Our Monthly Medicines Service is free to eligible patients taking three or more regular medicines.
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