PCV116 - The Factors Related with Patient Experience of Medication: A Multilevel Analysis

Abstract

With advent of the patient-centric healthcare paradigm, it is important to consider patients’ health experience when making treatment decisions. This study aimed to describe patients’ medication experience among patients with hypertension and to examine whether the patients’ medication experience depends on individual drugs and patient characteristics. Data were from a cross-sectional survey of members of six senior centers in a metropolitan statistical area of a south eastern state of the US. The seniors taking at least one hypertensive medication were included in this study (N=216). Patient medication experience was measured in terms of overall experience, effectiveness, side effects, ease of use, cost of medication, food interactions using a 5-point Likert scale. Patient characteristics were socio-demographics, MMAS (Morisky Medication Adherence Scale), BMQ, (Beliefs about medicines questionnaire), and CCI (Charlson Comorbidity Index). Drug characteristics were active ingredients. Multilevel analysis was conducted to control for the nested structure of the medication experience. Overall, patients were satisfied with their blood pressure medications (mean=4.28, sd=1.29). They were less satisfied with safety (mean=3.15, sd=1.83) than with effectiveness (mean=4.22, sd=1.28). The percent of variance in each patient medication experience explained by the patient level factors ranged between 73.21% and 90.56% of ICC(Intraclass Correlation Coefficients). Patients’ overall experience was significantly associated with medication belief (p=0.009), adherence (p=0.002), and education (p=0.007). Patients with better medication adherence had significantly better experience in effect (p=0.039), ease of use (p=0.046), and cost of medication (p=0.024). However, they did not have better experience in medication safety and food interaction. Patient medication experience differed depending on drugs and patient characteristics. The existence of varying medication experience signifies a critical need for tailored medication counseling for a well-controlled hypertension.