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The Adherence Scale in Chronic Diseases (ASCD). The power of knowledge: the key to successful patient — health care provider cooperation
open access
Abstract
Introduction. Patients’ adherence to long-term therapies is low. It translates into reduced quality of life and significant deterioration of health economics. Identification of potential barriers of medication-related adherence is a starting point allowing implementation of more advanced interventions directed to adherence improvement.
Aim. The purpose of our study was to create and validate a simple instrument used to assess patients’ adherence to recommended medications.
Material and methods. The Adherence Scale in Chronic Diseases is a self-reported questionnaire with 8 items and with proposed 5 sets of answers. The total score in the Adherence Scale in Chronic Diseases ranges from 0 to 32 points. Three levels of adherence were considered (low: scores of 0 to 20; medium 21 to 25; high > 26). The validation of the questionnaire was conducted in accordance with the validation procedure. Assessment of the internal consistency was performed using a-Cronbach coefficient. In order to conduct the factor analysis, we assessed: the determinant of correlation matrix, Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (K-M-O) statistic and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity. Factor analysis was conducted using principal component analysis with Oblimin rotation. The Kaiser criterion and scree plot were used in order to determine components of the questionnaire. Adherence levels were determined based on the percentiles.
Results. Grand total of 413 patients with a cardiovascular disease were included in the study. The reliability and homogeneity of the questionnaire were confirmed by a-Cronbach coefficient (0.739). Factor analysis showed that in this questionnaire we can extract two components. The analysis of factor loadings indicated excluding item 2 from the questionnaire. After exclusion of the mentioned item, we repeated the validation procedure. For such a new dataset, according to the Kaiser criterion, only one component was extracted.
Conclusions. The Adherence Scale in Chronic Diseases is a practical, reliable, consistent and well validated instrument for identifying specific obstacles to medication adherence. Its simplicity causes that it can be successfully applied in daily practice by health care professionals. Our survey has the potential to improve patient — health care professional communication and relationship.
Abstract
Introduction. Patients’ adherence to long-term therapies is low. It translates into reduced quality of life and significant deterioration of health economics. Identification of potential barriers of medication-related adherence is a starting point allowing implementation of more advanced interventions directed to adherence improvement.
Aim. The purpose of our study was to create and validate a simple instrument used to assess patients’ adherence to recommended medications.
Material and methods. The Adherence Scale in Chronic Diseases is a self-reported questionnaire with 8 items and with proposed 5 sets of answers. The total score in the Adherence Scale in Chronic Diseases ranges from 0 to 32 points. Three levels of adherence were considered (low: scores of 0 to 20; medium 21 to 25; high > 26). The validation of the questionnaire was conducted in accordance with the validation procedure. Assessment of the internal consistency was performed using a-Cronbach coefficient. In order to conduct the factor analysis, we assessed: the determinant of correlation matrix, Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (K-M-O) statistic and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity. Factor analysis was conducted using principal component analysis with Oblimin rotation. The Kaiser criterion and scree plot were used in order to determine components of the questionnaire. Adherence levels were determined based on the percentiles.
Results. Grand total of 413 patients with a cardiovascular disease were included in the study. The reliability and homogeneity of the questionnaire were confirmed by a-Cronbach coefficient (0.739). Factor analysis showed that in this questionnaire we can extract two components. The analysis of factor loadings indicated excluding item 2 from the questionnaire. After exclusion of the mentioned item, we repeated the validation procedure. For such a new dataset, according to the Kaiser criterion, only one component was extracted.
Conclusions. The Adherence Scale in Chronic Diseases is a practical, reliable, consistent and well validated instrument for identifying specific obstacles to medication adherence. Its simplicity causes that it can be successfully applied in daily practice by health care professionals. Our survey has the potential to improve patient — health care professional communication and relationship.
Keywords
adherence, barriers of adherence, compliance, medication, self-report scale, patient education, persistent therapy
About this articleTitle
The Adherence Scale in Chronic Diseases (ASCD). The power of knowledge: the key to successful patient — health care provider cooperation
Journal
Issue
Article type
Original article
Pages
37-42
Published online
2016-08-11
Page views
2147
Article views/downloads
1489
DOI
Bibliographic record
Medical Research Journal 2016;1(1):37-42.
Keywords
adherence
barriers of adherence
compliance
medication
self-report scale
patient education
persistent therapy
Authors
Katarzyna Buszko
Karolina Obońska
Piotr Michalski
Agata Kosobucka
Aleksandra Jurek
Marzena Wawrzyniak
Wioleta Stolarek
Łukasz Pietrzykowski
Anna Andruszkiewicz
Aldona Kubica