Overview
I created an evaluation questionnaire for my focus of medication adherence and consumption compliance.
Participants
This evaluation was sent to close friends and family members as well as individuals through social channels.
1. How were you informed to take your medication and do you take it as informed?
- At the pharmacy, yes
- By my physician. Yes I take it regularly
- Worked with doctor to find right combination of medications, took as instructed with new medications
2. Describe your experience understanding when and how to take your medication.
- Pharmacy technician reviewed with me, also refer to label presented on bottle
- It was easy. The nurse showed me how to inject insulin, and I practiced on an orange.
- Doctor assisted with the help of label as a reference
3. What methods did you implement to ensure remembrance when taking your medication?
- Place medication(s) is a place that I would remember
- None. Simply remembered to take when pre/post eating or physical activity
- Had to set alarms due to amount of tablets that needed to be taken at various points throughout the day
- Would place medication in purse to remind through feeling and constant touch
- When living at home it was easier to remember to take as they were specified with meals, parents assisted in remembrance
- The effects of not taking lead to my remembrance, though taking then may not always be the instructed time
- Spoke with my doctor and if I forget, simply wait until the next opportunity to be on the specified routine of consumption
- Medications that had a meaningful incentive allowed me to remember more frequently in comparison to others (i.e. contraceptives)
4. Were there any present challenges when taking a prescribed medication?
- With new medications wanting to know if they worked allowed for successful consumption
- Not establishing a routine hindered my ability to take the medication (i.e. antibiotics)
- Misplacing the medication lead to non-compliance in regard to consumption or taking every other day
- If I go out with friends and arrive home late in the evening I will forget to take or not take all the prescribed medications, I get tired
- When at work my attention is towards others and work-related matters so my focus on taking medication is no longer present
- Caring for my child and looking after will distract me from my own needs such as taking my medication
- When responsibilities increase, taking my medication will be forgotten as it is not made a priority of remembrance
5. Were there any present challenges when balancing multiple medications? (if applicable)
- After implementing routine medications the results were not as revealing leading to not remembering or non-compliance, became too hard to take multiple
Analysis:
This evaluation allowed me to further understand the troubles people faced when taking their prescribed medication and further understand the various methods in which people tried to remember to take their medication. In regard to remembrance, individuals sought to place the medication in plain sight or in a location of traffic that would signal to remembrance, such as a purse. Moreover, others simply waited to remember to take and then would adhere as others would be reminded by a figure or potential side effect of not complying. The responses were mixed and some techniques were intentional as others were by accident. Secondly, there were, in fact, present challenges that made it difficult to take one’s medication. Such troubles were in part by a lack of routine and the necessary amount of attention by the user. Overall, there were present themes in adherence and consumption of medications. The results can help to unpack the concept of ‘lifestyle change’ and further analyze individuals taking their prescribed medications.
