Introduction: Medication education and adherence assessments are integral to kidney transplant success. This program evaluation aimed to describe candidate-reported findings using a standardized medication adherence assessment in candidates undergoing living-donor kidney transplantation. Design: This was a single-center retrospective description of medication adherence on adult HIV-negative living-donor candidates from July 1, 2018 to December 1, 2018 who had ≥6 months post-operative follow-up. Medication adherence assessments were performed by a pharmacist at the pre-operative visit within 2 weeks prior to transplant. Candidates were considered to (a) have adherence concerns if they reported missed/late medications within 2 weeks of assessment or ever stopped a medication without medical advice and (b) considered using adherence strategies if they reported active use of pill box, method to keep track of refills/auto-refill use, medication list, or medication reminder(s). Missed medication data were collected at 3- and 6-months posttransplant. Results: Among 181 candidates included, 81 (45%) had adherence concerns and 169 (93%) reported using adherence strategies. There were no significant differences with adherence concerns by age ≤ 29 years, sex, race, prior transplant/dialysis, or less than a high school education. More candidates with greater than a high school education used adherence strategies (96% vs 86%, P = .002). Too few candidates had documentation on missing medications at 3 and 6 months. Conclusions: Over 40% of candidates reported characteristics concerning medication nonadherence despite over 90% reporting adherence strategies used. Medication adherence assessments can assist with identification of medication nonadherence and education individualization.

BACKGROUND: The COMPASS trial demonstrated that in patients with atherosclerotic diseases, low-dose rivaroxaban and aspirin provides greater protection against subsequent major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) than mono-antiplatelet therapy (MAPT) alone. Drug acceptance and adherence maximizes this benefit. We have assessed drug acceptance and adherence to the COMPASS drug regime in patients following carotid endarterectomy (CEA) for symptomatic carotid artery stenosis.
METHODS: Following CEA, the views of 63 patients on the COMPASS drug regime were assessed using the Beliefs about Medicine Questionnaire and drug adherence was determined using the Sidorkiewicz scoring system. These views were compared with those of 54 patients on MAPT. Side effects (bleeding and drug reactions) and new MACE were recorded.
RESULTS: Post-CEA patients on the COMPASS drug regimen had strong positive views on the necessity to take these drugs (necessity scale 19.6 ± 3.6). Although there were some concerns about the COMPASS drug regimen, these were not strongly held (concern cscale 11.8 ± 4.9) and the necessity-concerns differential was positive (7.8 ± 6.2). The Drug Adherence Score was \"High\" to \"Good\" (level of drug adherence 1.7 ± 1.0). The Beliefs about Medicine Questionnaire scales and Drug Adherence Score of post-CEA patients on the COMPASS drug regimen were similar to those on MAPT. The incidence of post-CEA MACE and side effects were similar for those on the COMPASS drug regimen and MAPT.
CONCLUSIONS: Post-CEA patients on the COMPASS drug regimen had positive views on taking the drugs and drug adherence was high. We did not identify any patient-related barriers to the use of the COMPASS drug regimen to further reduce cardiovascular events.

Background: Specifically young women are at risk for a poor outcome after ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). We aimed to investigate sex- and age-specific differences in outcome and associate these results with adherence to a guideline-directed optimal medical therapy (OMT). Methods: Administrative insurance data (≈26 million insured) were screened for patients aged 18-60 years with STEMI. Patient demographics, details on in-hospital treatment, adherence to OMT and its effect on mortality were assessed. Adherence to OMT was analyzed using multistate models and an association of those with death was fitted using multivariable Cox regression models with time-dependent co-variables. Results: Overall, 59,401 patients (19.3% women), median age 52 (interquartile range 48, 56) presented with STEMI. Female sex was associated with a poor outcome early after STEMI (90-day mortality: odds ratio 1.22, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12-1.32, p < 0.001). Overall survival was reduced in women compared to same-aged men. The ten-year survival rate was 19.7% (18.1-21.2%) versus 19.6% (18.9-20.4%) in men (p < 0.001). Although long-term drug adherence was low, its intake was associated with a better outcome. Specifically younger women showed a markedly lower mortality when on OMT (hazard ratio (HR) 0.22 (95% CI 0.19-0.26) versus HR 0.31 (95% CI 0.28-0.33) in men, pint < 0.001). Conclusions: Specifically young women were at risk for a poor outcome in the early phase after STEMI. Although long-term adherence to OMT was low, it was generally associated with a lower mortality, specifically in women. Our findings emphasize on early and long-term preventive measures in all patients after STEMI.

BACKGROUND: The high prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension in Pakistan is predominantly attributed to poor medication adherence. As more than 137 million people in Pakistan use cell phones, a suitable mobile health (mHealth) intervention can be an effective tool to overcome poor medication adherence.
OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine whether a novel mHealth intervention is useful in enhancing antihypertensive therapy adherence and treatment outcomes among patients with hypertension in a low- to middle-income country.
METHODS: A 6-month parallel, single-blinded, superiority randomized controlled trial recruited 439 patients with hypertension with poor adherence to antihypertensive therapy and access to smartphones. An innovative, multifaceted mHealth intervention (Multi-Aid-Package), based on the Health Belief Model and containing reminders (written, audio, visual), infographics, video clips, educational content, and 24/7 individual support, was developed for the intervention group; the control group received standard care. The primary outcome was self-reported medication adherence measured using the Self-Efficacy for Appropriate Medication Adherence Scale (SEAMS) and pill counting; the secondary outcome was systolic blood pressure (SBP) change. Both outcomes were evaluated at baseline and 6 months. Technology acceptance feedback was also assessed at the end of the study. A generalized estimating equation was used to control the covariates associated with the probability of affecting adherence to antihypertensive medication.
RESULTS: Of 439 participants, 423 (96.4%) completed the study. At 6 months post intervention, the median SEAMS score was statistically significantly higher in the intervention group compared to the controls (median 32, IQR 11 vs median 21, IQR 6; U=10,490, P<.001). Within the intervention group, there was an increase in the median SEAMS score by 12.5 points between baseline and 6 months (median 19.5, IQR 5 vs median 32, IQR 11; P<.001). Results of the pill-counting method showed an increase in adherent patients in the intervention group compared to the controls (83/220, 37.2% vs 2/219, 0.9%; P<.001), as well as within the intervention group (difference of n=83, 37.2% of patients, baseline vs 6 months; P<.001). There was a statistically significant difference in the SBP of 7 mmHg between the intervention and control groups (P<.001) at 6 months, a 4 mmHg reduction (P<.001) within the intervention group, and a 3 mmHg increase (P=.314) within the controls. Overall, the number of patients with uncontrolled hypertension decreased by 46 in the intervention group (baseline vs 6 months), but the control group remained unchanged. The variables groups (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.714, 95% CI 2.387-3.825), time (AOR 1.837, 95% CI 1.625-2.754), and age (AOR 1.618, 95% CI 0.225-1.699) significantly contributed (P<.001) to medication adherence. Multi-Aid-Package received a 94.8% acceptability score.
CONCLUSIONS: The novel Multi-Aid-Package is an effective mHealth intervention for enhancing medication adherence and treatment outcomes among patients with hypertension in a low- to middle-income country.
BACKGROUND: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04577157; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04577157.

UNASSIGNED: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are important sources of evidence that strongly influence guidelines for patient management, including for elevated blood pressure in adults.
UNASSIGNED: Critical questions regarding the interpretation of hypertension trial results have recently increased, especially for concerns over methodology. In particular, investigator adherence to the protocol and patient adherence to investigational drugs are often far from optimal. These issues may be ignored or underreported because physicians\' behavior during trials is often not monitored and patients\' medication adherence is neither measured adequately nor reported or analyzed in the final report or in the publication. This situation may lead to misinterpretations of study results and misevaluations of the safety and efficacy profile of new drugs. In this short review, the problem of measuring, reporting, and analyzing drug adherence in RCTs is discussed and illustrated with several examples in the field of hypertension.
UNASSIGNED: The main conclusion is that drug adherence should always be measured in clinical trials, possibly with more than one method. In addition, prespecified analyses of adherence data should be included in the statistical plan of all trials to improve their overall quality.

BACKGROUND: Low-dose weekly methotrexate (MTX) is the mainstay of treatment in juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Unfortunately, a substantial part of patients has insufficient efficacy of MTX. A potential cause of this inadequate response is suboptimal drug adherence. The aim of this study was to assess MTX adherence in juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients by quantification of MTX concentrations in plasma. Secondly, the association between MTX concentrations and either self-reported adherence issues, or concomitant use of biologics was examined.
METHODS: This was a retrospective, observational study using plasma samples from juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients. An ultrasensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for quantification of MTX and its metabolite 7-hydroxy-MTX in plasma. The determined MTX plasma concentrations in juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients were compared with corresponding adherence limits, categorising them as either adherent or possibly non-adherent to MTX therapy.
RESULTS: Plasma samples of 43 patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis were analysed. Adherence to MTX in this population was 88% shortly after initiation of MTX therapy and decreased to 77% after one year of treatment. Teenagers were more at risk for non-adherence (p = 0.002). We could not find an association between MTX adherence with either self-reported adherence issues, nor with the use of concomitant biological treatment (p = 1.00 and p = 0.27, respectively; Fisher\'s Exact).
CONCLUSIONS: Quantification of MTX in plasma is a feasible and objective method to assess adherence in patients using low-dose weekly MTX. In clinical practice, the use of this method could be a helpful tool for physicians to refute or support suspicion of non-adherence to MTX therapy.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the factors associated with poor medication adherence in patients with DM and HTN in Peru.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study.
METHODS: We analyzed data from the Peruvian Demographic and Family Health Survey from 2014 to 2019. Adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) and their respective 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated to determine the factors associated with poor medication adherence.
RESULTS: We included 15,184 participants with a known diagnosis of DM and HTN. The frequency of poor medication adherence was 37.1%, with 36.7% among individuals with HTN and 29.2% among individuals with DM. Those belonging to age groups above 30 years (aPR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.74-0.80, for the group ≥ 60 years) had a lower frequency of poor medication adherence. Meanwhile, being male (aPR: 1.03; 95% CI: 1.01-1.05), lacking health insurance (aPR: 1.08; 95% CI: 1.05-1.10), belonging to lower wealth quintiles (aPR: 1.12; 95% CI: 1.08-1.17, for the first quintile), and living in the mountain region (aPR: 1.09; 95% CI: 1.06-1.12) were associated with a higher frequency of poor medication adherence. These findings were consistent when stratifying by the type of disease.
CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that poor medication adherence is common in patients with HTN and DM in Peru and is associated with sociodemographic factors, highlighting the importance of public health approaches to improve adherence.

UNASSIGNED: Adherence to prescription medications is vital to the success of any treatment plan, especially for chronic health conditions, such as hypertension (HTN). Although there are different scales used in assessing adherence to prescription medications, most if not all, of those scales are not available in Arabic. The absence of essential assessment tools makes the appraisal of adherence to prescription medications very difficult for native Arabic speakers. Therefore, this study aimed to translate and validate the Hill-Bone Compliance to High Blood Pressure Therapy (CHBPT) scale, which is commonly used to assess adherence to antihypertensive medications, among a sample of Arabic-speaking patients with HTN.
UNASSIGNED: This was a single-center cross-sectional study that took place at a university-affiliated hospital. It interviewed adult (≥18 years) patients with HTN who were visiting the primary care clinics between January and November 2020. Non-Arabic speakers, those under 18 years of age, individuals without a diagnosis of HTN, and patients without any previously filled prescription medications for HTN within the past three months were excluded. The forward-backward translation method was used after receiving permission from the originators of the questionnaire to translate their scale to Arabic. Test-retest and Cronbach alpha methods were used to assess the reliability. Principal component analysis with varimax rotation was used to examine the construct validity.
UNASSIGNED: One hundred and forty-one patients consented and participated in the study. Most of the patients were ≥ 50 years old (75 %), male (72 %), and had another chronic health condition besides HTN (99 %). The translated scale had good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.83) and reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.9). The Kaiser-Meyer-Oklin was 0.82 indicating adequate sampling to conduct factor analysis; hence, three factors (e.g., subscales) were extracted similar to the original scale. The mean scores for appointment keeping, medication taking, and reducing sodium intake subscales, as well as for the overall scale were 5.62 ± 1.39, 33.94 ± 3.87, 9.73 ± 2.1, and 49.29 ± 5.21, respectively.
UNASSIGNED: The translated version of the Hill-Bone CHBPT scale has both good reliability and validity and will hopefully help healthcare providers assess and monitor HTN patients\' adherence to their antihypertensive medication regimens. Multicenter studies should be conducted to verify the validity and reliability of the translated questionnaire among different Arabic-speaking patient populations with HTN.

BACKGROUND: Cardiac organ damage like left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and left atrial (LA) enlargement is more prevalent in women than men with hypertension, but the mechanisms underlying this gender difference remain unclear.
METHODS: We tested the association of drug nonadherence with the presence of LV hypertrophy and LA enlargement by echocardiography in 186 women and 337 men with uncontrolled hypertension defined as daytime systolic blood pressure (BP) ≥ 135mmHg despite the prescription of at least two antihypertensive drugs. Drug adherence was assessed by measurements of serum drug concentrations interpreted by an experienced pharmacologist. Aldosterone-renin-ratio (ARR) was measured on actual medication.
RESULTS: Women had a higher prevalence of LV hypertrophy (46% vs. 33%) and LA enlargement (79% vs 65%, both p < 0.05) than men, while drug nonadherence (8% vs. 9%, p > 0.514) did not differ. Women were older and had lower serum renin concentration and higher ARR than men, while 24-h systolic BP (141 ± 9 mmHg vs. 142 ± 9 mmHg), and the prevalences of obesity (43% vs. 50%) did not differ (all p > 0.10). In multivariable analyses, female gender was independently associated with a two-fold increased risk of LV hypertrophy (OR 2.01[95% CI 1.30-3.10], p = 0.002) and LA enlargement (OR 1.90 [95% CI 1.17-3.10], p = 0.010), while no association with drug nonadherence was found. Higher ARR was independently associated with LV hypertrophy in men only (OR 2.12 [95% CI 1.12-4.00] p = 0.02).
CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with uncontrolled hypertension, the higher prevalence of LV hypertrophy and LA enlargement in women was not explained by differences in drug nonadherence.
BACKGROUND: URL:  https://www.
RESULTS: gov ; Unique identifier: NCT03209154.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1249160.].