The pharmaceutical industry has evolved significantly throughout the last century, with treatments to many ailments and diseases becoming readily available to patients. The common symptoms people experience can be treated using drugs that are easily bought over-the-counter.
Although these medicines are offered on an “as-needed” basis, there is a significant difference when it comes to those patients diagnosed with chronic diseases. These diseases are identified as chronic because they do not go away over time, or take an immense amount of treatment to do so. Because of this, patients who do have these diseases are often signed up for medications to help ease the grave effects illnesses bring to their lives.
The impact of non-adherence on regularly taking medications
The local healthcare industry suffers large hits due to the failure of patients taking meds on time. In the United States alone, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that around 125,000 deaths occur yearly due to this. Most could have been prevented with proper and continued use of medications regularly.
Patients who experience chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular ailments, psychiatric illnesses, and other life-threatening health complications are mostly at risk. These illnesses are not to be taken lightly, as they threaten a person’s daily life and safety. Risks caused by chronic diseases can be combated through the right forms of therapy, along with proper pharmaceutical prescriptions.
Here is why medications are often forgotten
There is a multitude of reasons as to why people either forget or refuse to take their meds altogether. Inadequate access to pharmaceuticals, poor family support, the complexity of drug treatment, unpleasant side-effects, and an overarching stigma about meds are a few of these factors.
Although there are many reasons for forgetting about medications, sometimes it boils down to just not remembering to take them. For many, it seems to be a trivial matter or a small part of their day. This is why people forget details such as small tasks to be done, like students forgetting to send an e-mail reflection to their professor some days. Often times, pharmaceuticals were not a part of a person’s life until recent years, which often requires some getting used to.
Is there some way to ensure medications will be taken?
One way to do this is to ask a person for a reminder or find social support in family and friends. The problem is these people may not be available at specific times, so it defeats the purpose. Taking into account the 21st century, everybody is on some sort of device, and almost everyone owns a mobile device. People spend hours on their phones on end, which is why we created the MedManage app to help people avoid missing their daily treatment methods.
MedManage allows users to log information on medications, as well as set notifications to remind patients when it is time to take their meds. The app also allows users to stay connected with their supporting friends and family, along with cloud-based daily logs that make accessing data possible on multiple devices.
Those who are under pharmaceutical care knows the importance of daily medication logs. Download our app now, available on both iOS and Android, for free!