Aim: To measure primary medication non-adherence to antibiotics, paracetamol and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in patients discharged from Counties Manukau Health Emergency Department (CMH-ED).
Method: A retrospective observational study based on 1,600 discharged patients' data collected between 28 April-6 May and 28 July-9 August 2014. Data were included for patients who were residents within the Auckland Regional Public Health Service boundaries, presented to CMH-ED and were discharged with a prescription.
Results: Of 992 patients, 48.5% did not have at least one medication on their discharge prescription filled. Patients were mostly born in New Zealand (66.5%), of Pacific Island descent (42.8%), living in the most socioeconomically deprived areas (78.1%) and under 10 years of age (32.6%). Filling rates significantly increased with >1 prescribed item (p≤0.01). NSAIDs were significantly more likely to be filled compared with paracetamol (59.9% vs 51.3%, p=0.034); antibiotics were significantly more likely to be filled than all other medicines (80.4%, p<0.001). The most significant predictors for non-adherence when accounting for number and types of medications were patients 10-44 years (p<0.05) and smokers (p<0.01).
Conclusions: Age, smoking and number of prescribed medications were predictors of non-adherence to medication type. Further research is warranted to assess whether changes to prescription co-payments affect the rate of nonadherence.