MEDICATION KNOWLEDGE AND COMPLIANCE AMONG PATIENTS RECEIVING LONG-TERM DIALYSIS

The extent to which patients receiving long term dialysis understood a nd complied with their drug therapy regimens was studied. Patients und ergoing longterm hemodialysis or continuous ambulatory peritoneal dial ysis (CAPD) in a university-affiliated outpatient dialysis center were surveyed to determine their knowledge about and compliance with presc ribed regimens for antihypertensives, phosphate binders, and calcitrio l. They were asked to list their prescribed medications and state the medications' indications, the frequency with which they missed doses, and the actions they took after missing a dose. The patients were also asked where they obtained their medications and who their primary sou rce of drug information was. Seventy-two patients (51 receiving hemodi alysis and 21 receiving CAPD) were surveyed. Although 80% of the patie nts could recall the three target medications, only 39% of the hemodia lysis patients and 57% of CAPD patients could recall all of their medi cations. Significantly more patients knew the indication for their ant ihypertensive medication and calcitriol than for their phosphate binde r. The hemodialysis and CAPD patients reported they missed an average of 13.0 and 4.7 phosphate binder doses, 2.6 and 5.6 antihypertensive d oses, and 6.7 and 7.0 calcitriol doses, respectively, per month. Despi te the fact that 70% of the patients received their medications from a community pharmacy, less than 15% identified the pharmacist as their primary source of drug information. Patients receiving longterm hemodi alysis or CAPD were more knowledgeable about and compliant with their antihypertensive and calcitriol regimens than their phosphate binder r egimens.