[Better compliance with therapy in preventative medication use]. / Betere therapietrouw bij preventief medicatiegebruik.

ABSTRACT

Prescription of medication is one of the most common medical interventions. Just half of patients use a prescribed preventative medication in accordance with the doctor's instructions; this leads to a smaller effect from the medication, side effects and higher care costs. Therapy-non-compliant patients are hardly recognisable on the basis of clinical, demographic or medication-related characteristics. The prescriber can make use of pharmacist data, questionnaires, or technical aids, or broach the subject with the patient to discover whether or not the patient is therapy-compliant. Reasons for non-compliance with therapy can be roughly divided into unintentional or practical reasons and intentional reasons. Tailored intervention can be offered on the basis of the underlying reasons.