Medication adherence
Medication adherence is a clinical metric describing the extent to which a person’s medication-taking behavior corresponds with an agreed treatment regimen.
Medication adherence is a clinical metric describing the extent to which a person’s medication-taking behavior corresponds with an agreed treatment regimen. It can include whether treatment is initiated, how consistently doses are taken, and whether treatment is continued over time. Adherence is distinct from treatment efficacy: a medicine may be pharmacologically effective, but its real-world benefit can be reduced when doses are missed, treatment is modified without clinical guidance, or therapy is discontinued.
Medication adherence is particularly important in chronic conditions and long-term therapies, including type 2 diabetes, asthma, HIV/AIDS, schizophrenia, autoimmune disease, and cancer. It is influenced by treatment-related factors, patient beliefs and symptoms, self-care agency, patient education, social support, anxiety, access to care, and socioeconomic circumstances. In clinical and research settings, adherence may be assessed through patient reports, pharmacy or insurance claims, electronic monitoring, connected devices, or computational tools. Recent work spans socioeconomic factors in asthma self-care, SGLT2 inhibitor use in diabetes, and breast cancer therapy associated with pain and physical activity; the newer publications also extend this scope to oral chemotherapy, primary Sjögren disease, antiretroviral therapy, and care coordination.
- Factors associated with medication adherence among adult diabetic patients of Bangladesh. PMID 42752647
Where the papers sit
12 papers study medication adherence directly. The themes below are drawn from those 12.
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Chronic Disease Self-Management : Personalized coaching, pharmacist-led apps, and yoga are being used to improve adherence alongside glycaemic control, LDL cholesterol, mental health, and quality of life. Necessity–concern beliefs and Medication Possession Ratio recur as targets and measures across diabetes and other chronic disease. 6 papers · 50%
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Adherence in Complex Care : Adherence measurement is moving toward standardized Proportion of Days Covered analyses, while care coordination and adaptive mobile tools support anticoagulant, oral chemotherapy, and asthma treatment. Stroke with atrial fibrillation and high-need patients anchor the implementation work. 4 papers · 33.3%
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Breast Cancer Treatment Adherence : Adjuvant aromatase-inhibitor therapy is being paired with home walking and AI-based prediction to sustain adherence in breast cancer. The recurring goal is to address pain and treatment burden while identifying patients who need support. 2 papers · 16.7%
Recent Findings on medication adherence
Chronic Disease Self-Management: Diabetes care links medication adherence with disease control, while observational studies identify regimen burden, medication knowledge, healthcare satisfaction, and mental health as important correlates. Among Bangladeshi adults with diabetes, 42.25% had poor adherence; living with a partner, higher education, medication understanding, and healthcare satisfaction favored adherence, whereas polypharmacy, self-medication, and poor mental health reduced it 42752647Sep. Saudi claims data showed treatment discontinuation across several antidiabetic regimens and a medication possession ratio of 0.87 among insulin users 42575546Aug. Health coaches used medication possession ratio and motivational interviewing to lower LDL cholesterol, while CareAide® improved MMAS-8, Proportion of Days Covered, and quality of life; its HbA1c benefit varied by analysis 42714414Sep42543085Aug. Newly diagnosed primary Sjögren disease linked adherence to the necessity-concern differential rather than disease activity or patient-reported burden, whereas yoga remains under prospective evaluation for mental health, quality of life, and antiretroviral therapy adherence in HIV 42631726Aug42044105Apr.
Adherence in Complex Care: Direct oral anticoagulant adherence after stroke with atrial fibrillation is increasingly measured with standardized Proportion of Days Covered methods, although dispensing assumptions changed estimates between Australia and Canada 42717313Sep. Adults receiving oral chemotherapy showed suboptimal adherence, and self-care agency positively predicted all three adherence subdimensions; education and income had positive indirect associations, while older age and female gender had negative indirect associations 42663682Aug. ReACT combines software and hardware monitoring with personalized support plans to address medication-use and symptom-management barriers in adolescents with asthma 42189631May. Care coordination is being tested in a randomized trial for medication self-management among high-need, high-cost commercially insured beneficiaries 42043924Apr.
Breast Cancer Treatment Adherence: Adjuvant aromatase-inhibitor treatment in early breast cancer is being paired with physical activity and computational tools to sustain treatment engagement and identify patients needing support. A 24-week home-based walking program achieved high intervention compliance and maintained higher activity levels through 24 months, but it did not reduce aromatase-inhibitor arthralgia/myalgia incidence or pain 42070391May. A systematic review is examining artificial intelligence for predicting and supporting medication adherence in breast cancer, extending adherence efforts toward targeted support alongside symptom-focused approaches 42013303Apr.
Written from 12 PubMed abstracts, each one cited by PMID above. Published: 2026-08-30. Last written: 2026-09-19 by GPT. Drafted by language models from published abstracts; not medical advice.