Abstract
Non-adherence to prescribed medications is a systemic public health concern. Financial strain, the extent to which an individual is unable to afford necessary items, may represent an important factor related to adherence. This study evaluated the association between financial strain and medication adherence as a function of medication type. Participants reporting a daily prescription for psychiatric or other chronic health conditions (N = 231) were sampled from the crowdsourcing website Amazon Mechanical Turk (mTurk). All participants completed measures of financial strain and other individual-difference factors related to adherence. Medication adherence was evaluated using a subjective scale (i.e., ARMS) and past month non-adherence rates. General financial strain showed a modest relationship with subjective scales of adherence, but not past month non-adherence rates. Medication-specific financial strain was associated with greater non-adherence, even after controlling for relevant demographic, socio-economic, and personality factors. Medication-specific financial strain also disproportionately affected individuals taking psychiatric medications relative to those not taking psychiatric medications. These findings emphasize the role that financial strain plays in medication adherence, and in particular, in psychiatric conditions. Future studies could design interventions targeting financial strain to improve clinical adherence, broadly, and psychiatric medication adherence, specifically.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 389-395 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Psychiatry Research |
| Volume | 271 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2018
Funding
This work was supported by internal funds from the University of Kentucky and National Science Foundation [grant number 1247392 ]. These funding sources had no role in study design, data collection or analysis, or preparation or submission of the manuscript. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This work was supported by internal funds from the University of Kentucky and National Science Foundation [grant number 1247392]. These funding sources had no role in study design, data collection or analysis, or preparation or submission of the manuscript. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| National Science Foundation (NSF) | 1247392 |
| University of Kentucky | |
| National Science Foundation (NSF) |
Keywords
- Adherence
- Crowdsourcing
- Income
- Medicine
- Socioeconomic
- mTurk
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychiatry and Mental health
- Biological Psychiatry
