Kasuni C Yamasinghe, Kasuntha Y Rajapaksha, Sanjeewani N A, Dinithi N Amarathunga and Jayantha Balawardhana
General Sir John Kotelawala Defense Universiy, Sri Lanka National Cancer Institute, Sri Lanka
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Biochem Mol biol J
Background: Anticancer medications are very expensive and great burden for the Sri Lankan government who provides free healthcare services to the nation. Medication adherence is an important parameter use to measure the effectiveness of therapy. The objective was to identify the correlation factors affecting the effectiveness of oral chemotherapy among the cancer out patients in Apeksha Hospital, Sri Lanka.
Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted among 202 out patients during period of three months utilizing an interviewer administered questionnaire conceded with five categories. Data was statistically analysed using SPSS version 23. Correlations among the 25 adherence factors were studied to identify the critically affecting adherent factors. Chi square test and R value were calculated to assess factors are statistically significant.
Results: Average medication adherence percentage was 72%. Out of 25, there were 14 critically affecting adherent factors that R within -0.1 to 0.5. Some of them were: interest to obtain more information, discussion about the dosing schedule and side effects with the physician, counsel by pharmacist, living condition. The strongest correlation was showed in understanding therapy with misunderstanding current treatment (r=-0.320).
Conclusion: Majority had satisfactory level in the adherence. But there were considerable proportion of patients who had problems in adherence due to some correctable factors. Therefore, necessary steps should be taken to improve adherence by minimizing deficits in some areas. Conducting counselling sessions and awareness programs might be helpful to enhance adherence and effectiveness of therapy
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