Adherence

AdhereR operates with the ABC (Ascertaining Barriers to Compliance) taxonomy of adherence:

Adherence to medications is the process by which patients take their medication as prescribed, further divided into three quantifiable phases: Initiation, Implementation and Discontinuation.

Vrijens, Bernard et al. “A new taxonomy for describing and defining adherence to medications.” British journal of clinical pharmacology vol. 73,5 (2012): 691-705. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2125.2012.04167.x
ABC adherence taxonomy adapted for electronic healthcare data

Why electronic healthcare data?

AdhereR estimates adherence based on electronic healthcare data (EHD). The main advantage of EHD and reason for its wide use is that data are available from routine care for large samples with minimal extra costs. With EHD, it is possible to:

  • Estimate prevalence of (non-)adherence
  • Identify predictors of (non-)adherence
  • Model impact of adherence on clinical outcomes
  • Identify individuals with suboptimal adherence for targeted interventions

Limitations of EHD are:

  • low granularity
  • variable data entry quality & standards
  • limited information recorded