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Preventive Medication Adherence in African American and Caucasian Headache Patients
Author(s) -
Heckman Bernadette D.,
Ellis Gary
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
headache: the journal of head and face pain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.14
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1526-4610
pISSN - 0017-8748
DOI - 10.1111/j.1526-4610.2011.01866.x
Subject(s) - medicine , logistic regression , psychological intervention , african american , concomitant , physical therapy , medication adherence , psychiatry , ethnology , history
( Headache 2011;51:520‐532) Study Objectives.— To examine race‐related differences in adherence to preventive medication agents in headache patients and identify factors predictive of medication adherence in Caucasian and African American headache patients. Methods.— Using a longitudinal naturalistic study design, data from 77 Caucasian and 32 African American headache patients were collected through (1) 30‐day daily diaries that assessed medication adherence, headache frequency, and headache episode severity; (2) self‐administered surveys that assessed headache management self‐efficacy; and (3) telephone‐administered psychiatric interviews that yielded psychiatric diagnoses. Using daily diary adherence data, patients' adherence to preventive agents was dichotomized as “Inconsistent” (ie, adhered fewer than 80% of days) or “Consistent” (ie, adhered ≥80% of days during the past month). Results.— The proportion of adherent African American patients (69%) did not differ significantly from the proportion of adherent Caucasian patients (82%). Exploratory univariate logistic regression analyses found that preventive medication adherence levels of 80% or less were associated with being diagnosed with major depressive disorder and lower levels of headache management self‐efficacy. Conclusions.— Future research should test if interventions that reduce depressive symptoms and increase patients' levels of headache management self‐efficacy can produce concomitant increases in adherence to preventive headache agents.