Medication adherence

Medication adherence is the extent to which a person's medication-taking behavior matches an agreed treatment plan. It includes starting, taking, and stopping medicines as planned.

Medication persistence: The duration from starting a medicine to discontinuing it. Adherence includes whether treatment continues for the agreed duration.
Morisky Medication Adherence Scale: A self-report questionnaire used to assess medication-taking behaviors and barriers. It provides a structured way to screen for reported adherence problems.
Medication regimen: The prescribed schedule and instructions for taking one or more medicines. Adherence is judged against this schedule and its agreed instructions.
Treatment efficacy: The ability of a treatment to produce a desired effect under specified conditions. A treatment's observed benefit depends partly on whether it is taken as planned.
Self-report bias: Systematic error in information people provide about their own behavior or experiences. People may overreport adherence because of memory limits or social pressure.
Medication possession ratio: A measure estimating the proportion of time a patient has medication available, based on dispensing records. Dispensing records offer one way to estimate adherence, though possession does not prove doses were taken.
Directly observed therapy: A treatment approach in which a trained person watches a patient take each prescribed dose. It verifies dose-taking in settings where missed treatment has serious consequences.
Medication compliance: A traditional term for how closely a patient follows a clinician's medication instructions. Adherence emphasizes an agreed plan rather than one-way obedience to instructions.
Antimicrobial resistance: The ability of microorganisms to survive or grow despite exposure to medicines designed to kill or inhibit them. Incorrect antimicrobial use can contribute to resistance, though resistance has multiple causes.
Healthy adherer effect: The tendency for people who adhere to treatment to differ in other health-related ways that also affect outcomes. Associations between adherence and outcomes may partly reflect these broader differences.

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