Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Research to Improve Medication Adherence: A Systematic Review

Figures & data

Table 1 Criteria Excluding

Criteria	Definition
	Examples of exclusion criteria from studies
Hearing impairment	Excludes people on the basis of their ability to hear. Includes considerations for Deaf community like use of Sign Language.
	Unable to hear, conditions impairing telephone communication
Motor impairment	Excludes people on the basis of upper or lower extremity motor impairment.
	Disabled, unable to walk, unable to write, serious physical alteration, motor problems, mobility problems
Vision impairment	Excludes people who have poor vision or blindness
	Unable to read, vision impairment, serious sensory alteration, legally blind, has specific visual diagnosis (eg exclusion of persons with diabetic retinopathy in astudy of adults with Type 2 diabetes mellitus)^Citation18
Cognitive impairment	Excludes people with cognitive impairment
	Metal problems, mental illness, inability to give informed consent, unable to understand intervention or assessment, poor cognitive function, mental retardation, fails to meet threshold score on cognitive exam
Caregiver assistance	Excludes people who require assistance from a friend or family member to consent to the study or complete study related activities.
	Unable to take primary responsibility for taking their own medications
MEMS	Excludes people who are unable to unwilling to use MEMS
	Willing and able to use MEMS
Other criteria	Criteria by the research team other criteria that can be discriminatory
	The researcher considered that the patient’s health would be compromised due to adverse effects or concomitant diseases, patients with diseases that could interfere with the study, patients whose pathological situation could interfere with the development of the study, chronic medical condition, psychological instability

Notes: The italics denote a sub description and differentiates the definition from the examples.

Figure 1 Percent of studies excluding people with disabilities by impairment.

Figure 2 Use of Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS) in medication adherence intervention research and MEMS as an exclusion criteria.

Al Mazroui NR, Kamal MM, Ghabash NM, Yacout TA, Kole PL, McElnay JC. Influence of pharmaceutical care on health outcomes in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2009;67(5):547–557. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2125.2009.03391.x

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