Keele Research Repository

Objectives
To examine which interventions healthcare professionals use to support patients with taking medicines and their perceptions about the effectiveness of those actions.

Design
Cross-sectional multinational study.

Setting
Online survey in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland.

Participants
A total of 3196 healthcare professionals comprising doctors (855), nurses (1047) and pharmacists (1294) currently registered and practising in primary care and community settings.

Main outcome measures
Primary outcome: Responses to the question ‘I ask patients if they have missed any doses of their medication’ for each profession and in each country.

Secondary outcome: Responses to 50 items concerning healthcare professional behaviour to support patients with medication-taking for each profession and in each country.

Results
Approximately half of the healthcare professionals in the survey ask patients with long-term conditions whether they have missed any doses of their medication on a regular basis. Pharmacists persistently report that they intervene less than the other two professions to support patients with medicines. No country effects were found for the primary outcome.

Conclusions
Healthcare professionals in Europe are limited in the extent to which they intervene to assist patients having long-term conditions with medication adherence. This represents a missed opportunity to support people with prescribed treatment. These conclusions are based on the largest international survey to date of healthcare professionals’ management of medication adherence.