Measuring Medication Compliance

• When the doctor asks you whether you have take all of your medication, it’s hard for you to answer because you know the doctor wants you to say ”Yes I take all my medicine.” In fact most people truly believe that they have taken all of their doses. The problem is that if you forgot to take a dose, you cannot remember that you missed it!
• Prescription refills are a good way to track medication use over the long term. No refill means no dosing. If your 30 day refill has lasted more than 30 days, that’s a red flag that you missed some doses. It doesn’t tell you which days or whether it was the morning or evening dose, but it does tell you to be more careful.
• Medication boxes are an excellent way to see whether you have taken your morning and evening doses each day. These small plastic containers should be refilled weekly with the number of tablets prescribed for each dose. The compartment should be empty at the end of the day, showing you that you took all your medicine today. If some pills remain in the compartment, think about why you forgot that dose. If this is a common occurrence, you should re-evaluate your medication schedule to avoid forgetting doses.

Continue to Reasons for Poor Medication Compliance

Section Editor: Robert Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., author: Joyce Cramer
Last Reviewed: 11/15/08