Medication Adherence Barriers: Development and Retrospective Pilot Test of an Evidence-Based Screening Instrument.

BACKGROUND: Adherence to a prescribed medication regimen is often critical to successful comorbid disease management and decreased risk for adverse outcomes. The barriers that result in nonadherence are often multilayered and complex, making them difficult to address in an outpatient clinic setting. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this project was to develop an evidence-based observational screening instrument and determine its potential to identify barriers to medication adherence. METHODS: Medication adherence barriers were divided into five categories. These barriers provided the foundation for the screening instrument. To pilot test the instrument, a retrospective, quasiexperimental, observational comparison study was designed. The pilot study evaluated retrospective data of the Oncology Care Model (OCM). FINDINGS: Of 250 OCM patient records, 184 (74%) revealed potential medication adherence barriers for patients with uncontrolled comorbid illness or events.