Patient medication adherence: measures in daily practice.

Adherence to therapies is a primary determinant of treatment success. Failure to adherence is a serious problem which not only affects the patient but also the health care system. Medication non adherence in patients leads to substantial worsening of disease, death and increased health care costs. A variety of factors are likely to affect adherence. Barriers to adherence could be addressed as patient, provider and health system factors, with interactions among them. Identifying specific barriers for each patient and adopting suitable techniques to overcome them will be necessary to improve medication adherence. Health care professionals such as physicians, pharmacists and nurses have significant role in their daily practice to improve patient medication adherence.