| Summary: | Patient compliance to medications or non-adherence to schedule is a widely debated
topic across the world owing to its far reaching consequences as medication non-adherence
among new age group is moving rapidly upwards even when the whole world is witnessing
continuous expansion in the field of education, healthcare deliverance and other economic
and scientific advancements. The objective of this study was to evaluate the role played by
healthcare professionals in changing this distressing pattern of prescription non-adherence by
measuring their influence on the behaviour of patients. Throughout this study the patient is
considered as a consumer, but not always an end user of the product, unless otherwise stated
and both terms are interchanged to suit the context. In order to satisfactorily conduct the
research, quantitative survey techniques are employed with 5 point (Likert, 1932) type scales
using �Agree�, �Disagree�, �Strongly Disagree�, �Strongly Agree� and �Neutral� type survey
questions, numbering 20. Out of these 20 questions, 5 were questions on socio-demographics
to get an idea about the quality and diversity of the responses. A pool of 107 respondents,
majority males from 3 multi-speciality hospitals in the South Indian state of Kerala was
selected and questionnaire responses were obtained and analysed using specialised statistical
program SPSSTM. The use of quantitative survey was found to be appropriate and is justified
since the nature and type of the study involved mostly patients and also taking due thought
that a qualitative semi-structured interview within a hospital setup involving ailing patients
with poor health condition is undesirable. The questionnaire was put across by taking relevant
literature into consideration and majority of the findings were consistent with the previous
literature. The findings indicate that healthcare professionals have a significant impact on
patients when it comes to medication compliance and this was put to test by analysing the
roles played by cost and health motivation in the behaviour of the consumer.
|
|---|