In:
Malaria Journal, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, Vol. 9, No. 1 ( 2010-12)
Kurzfassung:
To compare three methods for evaluating treatment adherence in a 7-day controlled treatment period for malaria in children in Rwanda. Methods Fifty-six children ( 〈 5 years) with malaria were recruited at the University Hospital of Butare, Rwanda. Patients were treated with quinine sulfate, taste-masked, pellets during seven days: three days in hospital (in-patient) followed by a four-day out-patient period. Three methods to evaluate medication adherence among patients were compared: manual pill count of returned tablets, patient self-report and electronic pill-box monitoring. These pill-boxes were equipped with a microchip registering date and time of every opening. Medication adherence was defined as the proportion of prescribed doses taken. The inter-dose intervals were analysed as well. Results Medication adherence data were available for 54 of the 56 patients. Manual pill count and patient self-report yielded a medication adherence of 100% for the in- and out-patient treatment periods. Based on electronic pill-box monitoring, medication adherence during the seven-day treatment period was 90.5 ± 8.3%. Based on electronic pill-box monitoring inpatient medication adherence (99.3 ± 2.7%) was markedly higher (p 〈 0.03) than out-patient adherence (82.7 ± 14.7%), showing a clear difference between health workers' and consumers' medication adherence. Conclusion Health workers' medication adherence was good. However, a significant lower medication adherence was observed for consumers' adherence in the outpatient setting. This was only detected by electronic pill-box monitoring. Therefore, this latter method is more accurate than the two other methods used in this study.
Materialart:
Online-Ressource
ISSN:
1475-2875
DOI:
10.1186/1475-2875-9-206
Sprache:
Englisch
Verlag:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Publikationsdatum:
2010
ZDB Id:
2091229-8
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