Poor medication adherence is a serious public health problem in diabetes and may play a role in perpetuating inadequate risk factor control, particularly among minority and socioeconomically- disadvantaged patients. Extant medical literature has underestimated rates of nonadherence because it relies almost exclusively on adherence estimates derived from refill history among ongoing users, and thus fails to account for the large number of patients who are prescribed new therapies but never become ongoing users. We show preliminary evidence that one quarter of treatment-naove patients prescribed a new cardiometabolic medication (antihypertensive, antilipemic or antihyperglycemic) never fill (""""""""primary non-adherence"""""""") or never refill (""""""""early non-persistence"""""""") the new prescription and thus fail to become ongoing users. A more comprehensive understanding of adherence is needed;one that includes, first, all stages of medication adherence, from new prescription to therapy discontinuation and, second, how the stages of adherence shape social disparities in clinical outcomes. We propose a longitudinal study of diabetic patients prescribed a new cardiometabolic medication to assess social disparities in medication adherence, explanatory factors and clinical consequences. This """"""""new prescription design"""""""" will take advantage of a pharmacy management system that electronically records physicians'prescription orders, dose changes, discontinuation orders and incident side effects. Study subjects will include members of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Diabetes Registry, a large, well-characterized, ethnically-diverse, insured population of managed care patients with diabetes mellitus. Socially-disadvantaged patients are well represented in this study population, which has uniform access to and quality of care, unlike most population-based samples. Given that 92% of Americans with diabetes have health insurance, findings from this insured population should have broad public health relevance. Given this will be the first, large epidemiological study to assess primary medication adherence, it will provide a more comprehensive understanding of how social disparities in medication adherence shape disparities in diabetes-related risk factor control and inform the design of future interventions aimed at reducing health disparities.

Public Health Relevance

Project Narrative This study will evaluate whether diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol medications, are taken by patients with diabetes as prescribed (""""""""adherence""""""""), emphasizing social patterns in adherence, clinical consequences and reasons for differences in therapy initiation, maintenance and discontinuation. We will take advantage of new electronic prescribing data to evaluate medication adherence starting from the point the doctor writes the new prescription. Study findings should be generalizable to the 92% of Americans with diabetes who have health insurance, and provide a more comprehensive understanding of medication adherence in diabetes.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DK080726-03
Application #
8115005
Study Section
Health Services Organization and Delivery Study Section (HSOD)
Program Officer
Hunter, Christine
Project Start
2009-08-13
Project End
2013-07-31
Budget Start
2011-08-01
Budget End
2012-07-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$353,365
Indirect Cost
Name
Kaiser Foundation Research Institute
Department
Type
DUNS #
150829349
City
Oakland
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94612
Karter, Andrew J; Parker, Melissa M; Solomon, Matthew D et al. (2018) Effect of Out-of-Pocket Cost on Medication Initiation, Adherence, and Persistence among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: The Diabetes Study of Northern California (DISTANCE). Health Serv Res 53:1227-1247
Parker, Melissa M; Fernández, Alicia; Moffet, Howard H et al. (2017) Association of Patient-Physician Language Concordance and Glycemic Control for Limited-English Proficiency Latinos With Type 2 Diabetes. JAMA Intern Med 177:380-387
Adams, Alyce S; Madden, Jeanne M; Zhang, Fang et al. (2017) Effects of Transitioning to Medicare Part D on Access to Drugs for Medical Conditions among Dual Enrollees with Cancer. Value Health 20:1345-1354
Sarkar, Urmimala; Lyles, Courtney; Steinman, Michael et al. (2017) Changes in Medication Use After Dementia Diagnosis in an Observational Cohort of Individuals with Diabetes Mellitus. J Am Geriatr Soc 65:77-82
Adams, Alyce S; Parker, Melissa M; Moffet, Howard H et al. (2016) Communication Barriers and the Clinical Recognition of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy in a Diverse Cohort of Adults: The DISTANCE Study. J Health Commun 21:544-53
Lafata, Jennifer Elston; Karter, Andrew J; O'Connor, Patrick J et al. (2016) Medication Adherence Does Not Explain Black-White Differences in Cardiometabolic Risk Factor Control among Insured Patients with Diabetes. J Gen Intern Med 31:188-95
Lyles, Courtney R; Sarkar, Urmimala; Schillinger, Dean et al. (2016) Refilling medications through an online patient portal: consistent improvements in adherence across racial/ethnic groups. J Am Med Inform Assoc 23:e28-33
Chaufan, Claudia; Karter, Andrew J; Moffet, Howard H et al. (2016) Identifying Spanish Language Competent Physicians: The Diabetes Study of Northern California (DISTANCE). Ethn Dis 26:537-544
Lyles, Courtney R; Seligman, Hilary K; Parker, Melissa M et al. (2016) Financial Strain and Medication Adherence among Diabetes Patients in an Integrated Health Care Delivery System: The Diabetes Study of Northern California (DISTANCE). Health Serv Res 51:610-24
Schmittdiel, Julie A; Nichols, Gregory A; Dyer, Wendy et al. (2015) Health care system-level factors associated with performance on Medicare STAR adherence metrics in a large, integrated delivery system. Med Care 53:332-7

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