RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PRESCRIBERS INSTRUCTIONS AND COMPLIANCE WITHANTIBIOTHERAPY IN OUTPATIENTS TREATED FOR AN ACUTE INFECTIOUS-DISEASE

Antibiotics are frequently prescribed in everyday practice for the man agement of acute microbial infections. The present study was designed to assess the relationship between the prescriber's instructions and t he patient's adherence to a prescribed schedule of twice-daily doses o f antibiotic for at least 5 days to treat a,? infectious disease. The trial was conducted by ten practicing physicians on ambulatory patient s: Compliance with the antibiotic regimen was evaluated using a microe lectronic device, the Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS). Seven ty patients were prescribed an antibiotic in twice-daily doses for 5 t o 14 days (mean = 8). Data were available for analysis from 68 of them , aged 18 to 84 years (mean = 44). The ''taking compliance'' for the w hole study group, which corresponded to the ratio of the number of tim es the bottle was opened and the total number of doses prescribed duri ng the monitoring period, was nearly perfect at 99.6%. However, only 3 2.6% of the medications was taken within 1 hour before or after the 12 -hour interval expected to be optimal for a twice-daily regimen. It th erefore seems highly desirable that physicians give more detailed reco mmendations to their patients regarding the drug regimens they prescri be.