J Korean Soc Transplant.  2010 Dec;24(4):289-297.

Medication Adherence in Patients Taking Immunosuppressants after Kidney Transplantation

• Jung JH
• Kim YH
• Han DJ
• Kim KS
• Chu SH

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Kidney transplant recipients inevitably take a life-long immunosuppressive medication to prevent graft rejection. Non-compliance to immunosuppressive medication is one of the main causes leading to acute and chronic rejection and diminished renal function, resulting in a return to dialysis, increased morbidity, or mortality with an additional health care cost and poor quality of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate actual medication compliance and its related factors.
METHODS
A total of 222 functioning kidney transplant recipients were surveyed in a single center, and 25 patients were excluded due to incomplete responses. We reviewed medical records retrospectively, and the data were statistically analyzed with SPSS version 13.0.
RESULTS
Among 197 patients, 113 (57.4%) were compliant to the immunosuppressive agents, and 84 (42.6%) recipients were non-compliant. Non-compliant patients were significantly younger (P=0.004), highly educated (P=0.004), employed (P=0.005), more likely to live alone (P=0.035), and drank more (P=0.001) than the compliant patients. Regarding psychosocial factors, more barriers (P=0.015), weak beliefs about the necessity of taking medications (P=0.001), strong beliefs about specific concerns related to medications (P=0.038), and low self efficacy (P=0.003) were identified in the non-compliant group compared with the compliant group.
CONCLUSIONS
This study revealed that multiple factors affected medication compliance in patients taking immunosuppressants. It would be helpful to identify potential recipients with a risk for non-compliance based on their general characteristics and psychosocial factors, so they can be provided a specialized education program to promote compliance. This strategy may help produce more favorable long-term outcomes among kidney transplant recipients.

Keyword

Kidney transplant recipients; Immunosuppressants; Medication adherence

MeSH Terms

Compliance
Dialysis
Graft Rejection
Health Care Costs
Humans
Immunosuppressive Agents
Kidney
Kidney Transplantation
Medical Records
Medication Adherence
Quality of Life
Rejection (Psychology)
Retrospective Studies
Self Efficacy
Immunosuppressive Agents

Reference

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