Adhering to prescribed medications and treatment plans is essential to achieving positive health outcomes. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), improvements to medication adherence can have a more direct impact on patient outcomes than improvements to the specific treatments they are undertaking. This is why encouraging adherence through personalized patient support is so important.
With that being said, despite the potential for negative consequences, around 50 percent of patients do not take their medications as prescribed for a variety of reasons. What are the consequences of medication non-adherence? We’ll fill you in.
The Consequences of Medication Non-Adherence
Worsening Health Conditions
A worsening health condition is one of the biggest consequences of medication non-adherence. Non-adherent patients—especially those with chronic conditions—tend to experience more symptoms, complications, and comorbidities. Over time, medication non-adherence can also cause faster disease progression, often resulting in a need for prolonged, intensive care.
Increased Doctor and ED Visits
As a non-adherent patient’s condition worsens, their likelihood of visiting urgent care or an emergency department (ED) increases. Past studies show that nearly eight percent of all ED visits are related to medication non-adherence.
This is not only stressful and inconvenient for patients—but also for the payers footing the bill. The cost of caring for those using the ED often is high: They represent only three to five percent of the U.S. population, but account for 30-50 percent of total ED spending.
Prolonged Hospitalization
Hospital admissions associated with medication non-adherence are a common concern in healthcare. Poor medication adherence increases the risk of hospitalization—especially for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, or coronary artery disease. Studies show that non-adherence accounts for up to 25 percent of hospitalizations in the U.S. each year, most of which could be prevented with dedicated medication adherence patient programs.
Adverse Effects and Mortality
Adverse effects and eventual mortality are the most severe consequences of poor medication adherence. Globally, approximately 275,000 patients die each year due to medication non-adherence, with around 125,000 of those deaths occurring in the U.S. This is a tough pill to swallow, so to speak, because in most cases, non-adherence deaths are both unfortunate and unnecessary.
Medication Non-Adherence Impacts the Healthcare System
Although the consequences of poor medication adherence impact patients and their families first, it’s also important to note the wider implications for the healthcare system as a whole. As non-adherence leads to worsening health conditions, an increased need for prolonged care, adverse effects, and potentially even mortality, healthcare utilization and costs go up across the entire system.
In fact, medication non-adherence is directly responsible for billions of dollars in unnecessary healthcare spending each year, with a recent study revealing that morbidity and mortality associated with non-optimized prescription drug regimens cost around $528.4 billion per year on average in the U.S., and non-adherence plays a significant part.
With so many severe consequences associated with inconsistent medication adherence—some of which are quite literally life-and-death matters—it’s no wonder that clinicians, pharmacists, payers, and manufacturers are all highly motivated to improve adherence to prescribed medications. Fortunately, advancements in AI-driven healthcare experiences are empowering effective, efficient medication adherence programs to minimize non-adherence. A large part is thanks to AI-powered personalization that targets the right patients with the right message at the right time via the right channels – at scale – and creating optimal experiences for each individual patient on their medication journey.
Medication non-adherence is a persistent and problematic challenge with many unintended consequences. However, AI-driven technology and patient-level data can help predict and then personalize adherence programs, which in turn maximizes medication adherence and minimizes health consequences, reduces costs, and ultimately leads to the number one goal: improving patient outcomes.Learn how you can use AllazoHealth’s award winning AI to address the medication non-adherence issues outlined in this article.
