Medication adherence and barriers among persons with chronic rhinosinusitis, the first affiliated hospital of Kunming Medical University, The People’s Republic of China

Abstract

Medication adherence is vital for controlling symptoms and preventing complications of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine medication adherence and barriers to medication adherence among persons with CRS. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 259 participants from the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, the People’s Republic of China. The research instruments included the Demographic Data Form developed by the researcher, the 12-item Medication Adherence Scale (Ueno et al., 2018), and the Adherence Barriers Questionnaire (ABQ) (Müller et al., 2015). The 12-item Medication Adherence Scale and the ABQ were translated into Chinese by the researcher and were tested for their reliability, yielding Cronbach’s alphas of 0.78 and 0.82, respectively. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data. The results of this study revealed the following: 1. The participants had high medication adherence scores (M = 48.97, SD = 5.25); 2. The intentional adherence barriers were the belief that medications are all poison (M = 3.33, SD = 0.75), unsure of the need for taking medication (M = 3.26, SD = 0.68), and barriers to access healthcare (M = 3.15, SD = 0.66). The unintentional adherence barriers were feeling discouraged or depressed (M = 3.23, SD = 0.70), forgetfulness (M = 3.12, SD = 0.73), and not receiving required help (M = 2.59, SD = 0.94). The medication barriers were stopping or decreasing taking medication due to side effects (M = 3.23, SD = 0.59), being afraid of the medication side effects (M = 3.22, SD = 0.66), and problems when taking medication (M = 3.19, SD = 0.68). The healthcare system barrier was the burden of co-payment (M = 3.25, SD = 0.69). The results of this study provide basic information regarding medication adherence and barriers to medication adherence among persons with CRS. Healthcare providers could develop strategies to lessen identified barriers to further enhance medication adherence among persons with CRS.