Medication Adherence in Patients Undergoing Methadone Maintenance Treatment in Xi’an, China

Abstract

Based on our findings, multimodal intervention and management programs can be developed to improve poor medication adherence among the MMT patient population.

Adherence to methadone maintenance treatment and associated factors among patients in Vietnamese mountainside areas

“…Younger respondents, as in previous studies, might be more easily influenced by their peers’ drug use [13, 26]. Moreover, people who were workers or with high education level and high income might confront the conflict between their working time and the time spent on treatment; long distance between their workplace and MMT clinic; and drug-related stigma among their colleagues [13, 27, 28]. Therefore, these features should be considered by physicians when initiating methadone treatment in order to offer appropriate management and counseling service to such vulnerable populations for improving medication adherence.…”

“…For example, people with older age, low education, and low income were less likely to report treatment non-adherence. Younger respondents, as in previous studies, might be more easily influenced by their peers’ drug use [13, 26]. Moreover, people who were workers or with high education level and high income might confront the conflict between their working time and the time spent on treatment; long distance between their workplace and MMT clinic; and drug-related stigma among their colleagues [13, 27, 28].…”

“…Along with mobile phones, the positive association between family support and medication adherence has an important implication. Zhou et al found that people not living with family were more likely to drop out the treatment [13]. Therefore, the involvement of family members, particularly wife/husband/lover of patients, played an integral part in supporting patients to overcome the clinical, economic, and social barriers, as well as remind daily treatment to ensure treatment adherence [40].…”

“…First, patients reported their adherence in the last 7 days by using a 100-point visual analog scale (VAS), from 0 “complete non-adherence” to 100 “perfect adherence.” A threshold 90% was used to detect the optimal adherence [13, 19]. Then, we asked participants to report their adherence according to the standard of Ministry of Health (MoH) by using three questions: 1) number of days that they missed doses in the last 4 days; 2) whether they missed doses in the last weekend and 3) when they missed the last dose within the last 3 months.…”

“…In Europe, surveys in France and the United Kingdom showed that 65.2% and 42% patients did not adhere the treatment, respectively [8, 12]. Meanwhile, in Asia, studies in China suggests that the proportion of MMT patients having poor adherence were from 36.3% to 88.2% [13, 14]. One longitudinal study in 2009 in Vietnam indicated that the rate of missing dose for 1–2 days increased from 18.4% in the first 3 months to 41.4% after 24 months [15].…”