Adherence or compliance of medication can be defined as the extent in which the behavior of a person, which includes taking medications, following diet, or executing lifestyle changes coincides with the health or medical advice (1). Medical non-adherence then means the number of doses which were not taken or were taken incorrectly that prohibit or affect the therapeutic outcome of the patient. Medical nonadherence of the patient may increase or prolong the severity of an illness, leading to increased expenses needed to the patient and health care system, potential harm to the patient as well as unnecessary work on the part of practice during the visit (6). It may also lead to the assumption of the physician based on the poor response to the medication. The physician may assume that the medication was misdiagnosed. This may result in more tests to be carried out and increase in the number of medication as well as dosage. …show more content…
Majority of the factors affecting long-term compliance may be due to the number of the medications taken, number of daily doses, occurrence and well as severity of the side effects and compatibility with the daily activities of the patient (2). There are several reasons that act as barrier for medical non-adherence to occur among older patients. These include poor eyesight or vision, memory, hearing of the elderly, having difficulty to follow the instructions given, handling small tablets, opening drug containers, lacking of education about the medication, inability to define the adverse drug reactions, as well as competence of prescribed medicines