Evaluation of factors for medication non-adherence in chronic diseases and its association with the level of stress in health care providers in a tertiary care hospital- a cross sectional observational study

Maleha Butul, Roja Rani, Bandaru Sowmya, Sankar Seethalakshmi

Abstract


Background-Therapeutic regime effectiveness highly depends on medication-adherence. Poor medication- adherence resulting in therapeutic-failure is seen in health-care providers (HCP’s). Literature reviews focusing exclusively on the illness-experiences of HCP’s are lacking hence required to be evaluated. Methodology-A cross-sectional study among HCPs having 1chronic-disease, lasting 1year and taking 1chronic-medication was conducted after ethics approval. Online-questionnaire comprising of e-consent-form, inclusion-criteria, demographic-characteristics, factors affecting adherence, Adherence to Refills and Medication-Scale (ARMS), Perceived Stress-Scale (PSS) and Brief-Illness Perception Questionnaire (BPIQ) was used. Data was analysed by applying chi-square and binary logistic-regression using SPSS version24. Results - About 207 participants took up the study and 52 (25.1%) excluded. Of 155 (74.9%) continued, age group 46-55 (42.6%), female (81.3%), married (81.3%), having Master’s degree (72%) with regular employment (71%), medium income (81.3%), non-smokers (82.6%), having disease-duration>3yrs (71%), 1-chronic-disease (77.4%), 1-chronic-medication (66.8%) and no health insurance (64.5%). Forgetfulness (49.7%), Anxiety (21.2%), busy lifestyle (49.7%), mild disease (43.9%), treatment-complexities (42.6%), indirect-cost (15.5%) and concern at workplace (60%) were the important factors for non-adherence of medication. ARMS showed 93.4% to be adherent to medications. Among adherent 62% had moderate-stress and 13% showed high-stress. Among non-adherent, 100% showed moderate-stress. BPI reflected 69% participants had positive perception of disease, had moderate stress (76.6%). A statistically significant but weak positive correlation between stress score and perception about disease was observed. Conclusions-Study results showed forgetfulness, busy-lifestyle, treatment-complexities, side-effects of medications and negative-perceptions of illness had led to non-compliance in HCPs. A significant association between factors for non-adherence and stress was observed. A weak positive correlation was seen between adherence, perception of illness and stress.

 

Received on, 11 September 2025

Accepted on, 28 October 2025

Published on, 23 November 2025


Keywords


“Adherence to Refills and Medication Scale”; “Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire”; “Medication Adherence”; “Perceived Stress Scale”; “Therapeutic Failure”.

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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21622/AMPDR.2025.05.2.1667

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Copyright (c) 2025 Maleha butul, Maleha Butul, Roja Rani, Bandaru Sowmya, Sankar Seethalakshmi

Advances in Medical, Pharmaceutical and Dental Research

E-ISSN: 2812-4898

P-ISSN: 2812-488X

 

Published by:

Academy Publishing Center (APC)

Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT)

Alexandria, Egypt

ampdr@aast.edu