NEWS: Millions fail to take medicine correctly
- From: "Juba" <juba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:17:36 -0700
"On average, half of patients with chronic illnesses such as heart
disease or asthma skip doses or otherwise mess up their medication"
By Lauran Neergaard
ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 31, 2007
WASHINGTON - Millions of people don't take their medicine correctly - or
quit taking it altogether - and the consequences can be deadly.
On average, half of patients with chronic illnesses such as heart
disease or asthma skip doses or otherwise mess up their medication, says
a report being issued this week that calls the problem a national crisis
costing the country an estimated $177 billion in medical bills and lost
productivity.
The government is preparing new steps to persuade patients and their
doctors to do better. But with contributors ranging from too-hurried
doctor visits to confusing pill bottles, there's no easy solution.
"We go into this with some humility," says Dr. Carolyn Clancy, director
of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which is planning
what she calls an "in your face" campaign to improve medication
adherence. "It's really pretty appalling how badly we do."
Often people buy their drugs but misunderstand what they're supposed to
take, or how. Or forget doses. Or start feeling better and toss the rest
of the bottle. Or skip doses for fear of side effects. Then there's poor
eyesight: Pill-bottle instructions are pretty tiny.
Even the rich and highly educated skip their medicine. Perhaps the most
high-profile example is former President Bill Clinton, who stopped
taking his cholesterol-lowering statin drug at some point and later
needed open-heart surgery to avoid a major heart attack. Statins offer
significant heart protection, but about half of patients on statins quit
using them within a year.
Among findings from the National Council on Patient Information and
Education:
Particularly at risk are people whose diseases are initially
symptom-free. Although high blood pressure more than triples the risk of
heart disease, for example, just 51 percent of patients stick with their
prescribed antidote.
Also at high risk are the elderly, but adherence is a problem for all
ages. As few as 30 percent of teenagers correctly take drugs to prevent
asthma attacks, for example.
Dire consequences aren't always a deterrent. Among patients blind in
one eye from glaucoma, only 58 percent were protecting the other eye.
Even doctors mess up, acknowledging in one study that they adhere to
their own prescriptions just 79 percent of the time.
Poor medication adherence can cost an extra $2,000 a year for each
patient in doctor visits alone, and it's associated with as many as 40
percent of nursing home admissions.
--
Juba
www.masterjuba.com
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