Grant: Operating Grant

Medications for diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol play a critical role in the Canadian health care system because they can reduce the need for emergency hospitalizations and protect against the long term harm from these conditions. Indeed, people who take these medications regularly tend to live longer and have fewer emergency visits to the hospital compared to those who don't. However, only half of all people prescribed these medications take them regularly. As a result, a great strain is place on hospitals because prescription medications are not being used correctly to keep people healthy. Non-adherence to medications costs billions of dollars per year in Canada because of all the extra hospital visits required in people who don't take their medications. Non-adherence is often blamed on the cost of drugs, the side-effects of drugs, or poor communication between doctors and patients. All of these factors are important; however, most of the studies carried out previously have not been able to find out how all of these problems add-up together to cause 1 out of every 2 people to become non-adherent. Our study will identify the most important predictors of non-adherence so we can begin to find effective ways to fix the problem. The study will be carried out on people who start new prescription medications for diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol in Saskatchewan. All people starting new medications will be identified and followed carefully over the next year using a survey and health records. We will collect information about the patients, their doctors, and their drugs (including the cost). By combining all this information in one study, we will be able to identify the most important problems that prevent people from taking their medications regulary. Ultimately, we think this information will help keep more Canadians healthy and out of hospitals.