Methods to Measure Patient Compliance with Medication Regimens

Successful pharmacotherapy requires patient compliance with the therapeutic regimen. The rate of non-compliance has been reported to be as low as 15% in some studies and the costs of non-compliance have been estimated to be between 396 and 792 million. Compliance, adherence, and persistence are defined. Subjective and objective methods used to measure compliance are reviewed. Subjective methods include patient self-reporting and physician estimates; these methods are generally inexpensive but have been shown to be unreliable. Objective methods include pill counting, electronic monitoring devices, and data reviews; these methods vary in cost and reliability.