SynthesisBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2014
What are validated self-report adherence scales really measuring?: a systematic review.
Synthesis in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 191 papers, 14 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
191 citing papers in PubMed, 14 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The role of pictograms in improving patients' medication adherence: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2026Pooled it
- Medication adherence tools and measures in chronic kidney disease: a systematic review.BMC nephrology · 2026Pooled it
- Poor-tasting pediatric medicines: Part 1. A scoping review of their impact on patient acceptability, medication adherence, and treatment outcomes.Frontiers in drug delivery · 2025Pooled it
- Quality of measurement properties of medication adherence instruments in cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Association between health literacy and medication adherence in chronic diseases: a recent systematic review.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2023Pooled it
- Measurement Properties of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for Medication Adherence in Cardiovascular Disease: A COSMIN Systematic Review.Clinical drug investigation · 2022Pooled it
- Patient-reported outcome measures to detect intentional, mixed, or unintentional non-adherence to medication: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2022Pooled it
- Global Burden, Regional Differences, Trends, and Health Consequences of Medication Nonadherence for Hypertension During 2010 to 2020: A Meta-Analysis Involving 27 Million Patients.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2022Pooled it
- Accuracy of measures for antiretroviral adherence in people living with HIV.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Self-report instruments for assessing adherence to warfarin therapy: a systematic review.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Development of an Item Bank to Measure Medication Adherence: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Pooled it
- Counseling for improving adherence to antiretroviral treatment: a systematic review.AIDS care · 2019Pooled it
- Interventions to increase adherence in patients taking immunosuppressive drugs after kidney transplantation: a systematic review of controlled trials.Systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Trial
- Intra-individual Dose Escalation of Abiraterone According to Its Plasma Exposure in Patients with Progressive Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: Results of the OPTIMABI Trial.Clinical pharmacokinetics · 2024Trial
- Effect of Standardized Nutritional Intervention in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Receiving Radiotherapy Complicated with Diabetes Mellitus.Disease markers · 2022Trial
- A pharmacist health coaching trial evaluating behavioural changes in participants with poorly controlled hypertension.BMC family practice · 2021Trial
- Comparison of a new 3-item self-reported measure of adherence to medication with pharmacy claims data in patients with cardiometabolic disease.American heart journal · 2020Trial
- A novel approach to medicines optimisation post-discharge from hospital: pharmacist-led medicines optimisation clinic.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2020Trial
131 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsMedication non-adherence is a significant health problem. There are numerous methods for measuring adherence, but no single method performs well on all criteria. The purpose of this systematic review is to (i) identify self-report medication adherence scales that have been correlated with comparison measures of medication-taking behaviour, (ii) assess how these scales measure adherence and (iii) explore how these adherence scales have been validated.
methodsCinahl and PubMed databases were used to search articles written in English on the development or validation of medication adherence scales dating to August 2012. The search terms used were medication adherence, medication non-adherence, medication compliance and names of each scale. Data such as barriers identified and validation comparison measures were extracted and compared.
resultsSixty articles were included in the review, which consisted of 43 adherence scales. Adherence scales include items that either elicit information regarding the patient's medication-taking behaviour and/or attempts to identify barriers to good medication-taking behaviour or beliefs associated with adherence. The validation strategies employed depended on whether the focus of the scale was to measure medication-taking behaviour or identify barriers or beliefs.
conclusionsSupporting patients to be adherent requires information on their medication-taking behaviour, barriers to adherence and beliefs about medicines. Adherence scales have the potential to explore these aspects of adherence, but currently there has been a greater focus on measuring medication-taking behaviour. Selecting the 'right' adherence scale(s) requires consideration of what needs to be measured and how (and in whom) the scale has been validated.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.