Drug information needs and concerns of primary care patients with newly prescribed chronic medications

Chronic disease burden is expected to increase in Singapore as the population ages. Medication therapy is a common and cost-effective modality to manage the top three chronic diseases, i.e. hypertension, hyperlipidaemia and diabetes locally. However, about one-third of patients stop taking their newly prescribed medications within 10 days. This nonadherence problem is associated with poor clinical outcomes and substantial financial loss. This study aimed to determine patients’ drug information needs and concerns, and the potential nonadherence rate in patients with unaddressed concerns. This prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in four polyclinics over a period of six months. A total of 127 participants who met the inclusion criteria were consecutively sampled when they were filling prescriptions at the polyclinic pharmacies. Each recruited participant was administered a structured questionnaire face to face by the trained investigators in a standardised manner. The majority of the participants (95.2%) felt that information regarding the new chronic medication, especially the medications’ indications, side effects and dose, should always be given at the point of collection. Delivery of information through verbal advice and written information were most preferred. Top concerns with medications were side effects, long-term safety and drug interactions. Almost one-half of the participants (42.5%) would not take the new medications if they had unaddressed concerns about their medications. The findings from this study provide us with a better understanding of patients’ drug information needs and concerns, and the potential prevalence of nonadherence amongst primary care patients with unaddressed concerns.