The World Health Organization (WHO) Adherence Report findings indicate that increasing the effectiveness of Adherence interventions may have a far greater impact on the health of the population than any improvement in specific medical treatment.4World Health Organization. Adherence to long-term therapies: evidence for action. This research supports former US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop’s mantra that “Drugs don’t work in patients who do not take them” and …they have made the case that patient-centered and medication Adherence be at the core of reforming America’s health care delivery system. Here are some shocking facts about non-adherence.

Over half of adults in the US have Diabetes or pre-Diabetes. With Diabetes a recent study shows that many have reported the percent of patients being “non-adherent” ranging up to 64% for oral medications and up to 46% for users of insulin.5Menke A, Casagrande S, Geiss, L, Cowie, C. Prevalence of and Trends in Diabetes among Adults in United States, 1988-2012, JAMA. 2015;314(10):1021-1029. Doi:1001/jama;2015.10029.

According to the latest figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

• 29.1 million people in the U.S. are diagnosed with diabetes
• 8.1 million are undiagnosed
• 1.4 million people are diagnosed with diabetes each year
• Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S.

“Non-adherence to medication therapy is an ongoing barrier to glaucoma treatment with more than half of patients remaining non-adherent even after significant vision loss.”

“Glaucoma is a chronic, irreversible, optic neuropathy that can lead to permanent vision loss; it is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide and affects up to 60 million people. Eye drop medications are prescribed to preserve visual function and quality of life… and regular eye drop use reduces the rate of glaucoma progression.”6Cook PF, Schmiege SJ, Mansberger S, Krammer J, Fitzgerald T, Kahook, MY. Predictors of Adherence to Glaucoma Treatment in a Multi-Site Study. Ann Behav Med. 2015 Feb; 49(1): 29039.

Medication Adherence in kidney transplant patients is imperative to reduce the chances of kidney rejection; yet, up to 36.4% of patients are non-adherent to their medication therapy.7PWeng et al. Revalence and correlation of medication non-adherence among kidney transplant recipients more than 5 months post-transplant: a cross-sectional study BMC Nephrology 201313:261.

The increasing prevalence of chronic kidney disease, the relative shortage of kidney donors and the economic and health-related costs of kidney transplant rejection make Adherence to medication therapy imperative to prevent kidney rejection—there are currently over 130,000 people awaiting kidney transplants.8Ibid