Introduction:

The lack of adherence to pharmacological treatment of patients with chronic diseases it is a relevant problem.

Objective:

To assess the degree of adherence to the non-chemotherapy intravenous treatment of chronic patients who came to the outpatient clinic (OC), to identify the possible specific factors related to therapeutic compliance and to analyze the appointment changes in the OC and its impact on the Pharmacy Department (PD).

Material and methods:

Retrospective longitudinal descriptive study of three years duration (2017-2019). This included patients who went to the OC to receive the treatment. Adherence data were extracted from the PD records and demographic-clinical data from the review of electronic health records. Besides, the degree of adherence was expressed as a percentage (adherence adequate ≥90%). The association between the variables studied and the degree of adherence was estimated by means of statistical tests of hypothesis contrast.

Results:

A total sample size of 300 patients were included, mean age 47 years 60% women. Adherence of the treatment was inadequate in 18% of patients. The variables that showed a statistically significant association with adherence were the age, the drug delivered, the dosage interval and the persistence of treatment (p<0.05). 5.6% of OC work deviated from schedule and it meant additional work to the PD.

Conclusions:

The degree of adherence to the intravenous ambulatory treatment was inadequate in approximately a quarter of the population. The age, the infused drug, the dosage interval and the persistence of treatment were the variables that showed association with the adherence. Changes to OC programming resulted in over-added work for the PD.

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