Individual patients hold different beliefs to prescription medications to which they persist vs nonpersist and persist vs nonfulfill

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographic characteristics

Variable	Persistent versus nonpersistent N = 178		Persistent versus nonfulfillment N = 48
	N	%	N	%
Age, mean (SD)	59.8	10.8	63.4	10.8
40–49	37	20.8%	4	8.3%
50–59	48	27.0%	13	27.1%
60–69	62	34.8%	20	41.7%
70–79	24	13.5%	8	16.7%
80+	7	3.9%	3	6.3%
Gender
Male	61	34.8%	18	37.5%
Female	117	65.7%	30	62.5%
Education
High school or less	38	21.4%	8	16.7%
Some college	74	41.6%	26	54.2%
College degree	23	12.9%	5	10.4%
Greater than college degree	43	24.2%	9	18.8%
Income
<25K	39	24.7%	8	19.1%
≥25K <50K	46	29.1%	14	33.3%
≥50K <75K	30	19.0%	7	16.7%
≥75K <100K	21	13.3%	8	19.1%
≥100K	22	13.9%	5	11.9%
Race
White	158	89.8%	46	95.8%
Black	5	2.8%	1	2.1%
Hispanic	4	2.3%	0	0%
Other	9	5.1%	1	2.1%
Health
Fair/poor	111	62.7%	23	47.9%
Good	50	28.1%	21	43.8%
Very good/excellent	17	9.6%	4	8.3%
Medicationa
Hypertension medication	29	16.3%	14	29.2%
Asthma medication	85	47.8%	17	35.4%
Diabetes medication	83	46.6%	13	27.1%
Lipid medication	56	31.5%	18	37.5%
Osteoporosis medication	57	32.0%	14	29.2%
Other CVD medication	46	25.8%	20	41.7%

Notes:

a The N’s sum up to twice the number of subjects and the percents sum up to 200% because each subject was sampled for their medication-taking behavior on two separate medications in two different therapeutic areas.

Table 2 Results of paired sample t-tests

Persistent versus nonpersistent medications (N = 178)
Multi-item scale	Persistent medication	Nonpersistent medication	(Persistent) – (Nonpersistent)
	Mean	Mean	Difference (% lower)	t-score	P-value
Perceived need for medications	77.4	66.2	11.2 (14.5%)	6.7	<0.001
Side-effect concerns	68.5	57.8	10.7 (15.6%)	6.1	<0.001
Medication-safety concerns	52.2	51.6	0.6 (1.2%)	0.5	0.64
Perceived disease severity	65.3	59.3	6.0 (9.2%)	3.1	<0.01
Knowledge about the prescribed medication	83.1	80.1	3.0 (3.6%)	3.0	<0.01
Persistent versus nonfulfilled medications (N = 48)
Multi-item scale	Persistent medication	Nonfulfilled medication	(Persistent) – (Nonfulfilled)
	Mean	Mean	Difference (% lower)	t-score	P-value
Perceived need for medications	79.8	65.5	14.3 (17.9%)	3.9	<0.001
Side-effect concerns	71.3	56.9	14.4 (20.2%)	3.9	<0.001
Medication-safety concerns	53.6	53.8	−0.2 (−0.4%)	−0.1	0.95
Perceived disease severity	63.7	59.4	4.3 (6.8%)	1.3	0.21
Knowledge about the prescribed medication	87.9	82.4	5.5 (6.3%)	2.9	<0.01

Table 3 GEE models predicting subjects’ score on the five multi-item scales

Multi-item scale	Persistent versus nonpersistent medicationsa (N = 338)b		Persistent versus nonfulfilled medicationsa(N = 90)b
	Coefficient on the GEE modelc	P-value	Coefficient on the GEE modelc	P-value
Perceived need for medications	−10.9	<0.001	−13.0	0.01
Side-effect concerns	−10.7	<0.001	−14.3	<0.001
Medication-safety concerns	0.3	0.85	2.0	0.59
Perceived disease severity	−6.1	<0.01	−2.3	0.68
Knowledge about the prescribed medication	−2.5	0.02	−5.9	0.01

Notes:

a Reference category: Persistent medication;

b Each subject is included twice in the GEE models, once for the persistent medication and once for their nonpersistent/nonfulfilled medication;

c Covariates in the GEE models included: age, gender, education, income, race, self-reported health, and index medication therapeutic area.