Negotiating Medication Adherence in a Complex Treatment Environment

• In Event: 2184 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 09. Treatment Adherence and Navigating Care

Abstract

Poor adherence to prescribed medication is a significant problem in health care. Much existing research focuses on patient and caregiver-level barriers to medication adherence. Important gaps persist in understanding how individual skills and resources interact with broader social and institutional factors to shape medication behaviors. In this study we use in-depth interviews with 38 parents caring for a child with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia to examine how parents negotiate balance between medication instructions and daily family life, navigate the health care delivery system to access medication support, and integrate information from diverse sources to inform medication administration behaviors. Findings show that discordance between medical instructions and realities of daily family life led caregivers to seek additional strategies and information to manage medication protocols. When unable to obtain practical information related to medication administration from physicians, parents sought out alternative information sources, commonly other cancer caregivers. Findings highlight the importance of incorporating health-systems factors and conceptions of patient/caregiver advocacy into models seeking to understand medication adherence.

Authors

• Elizabeth Gage-Bouchard, Roswell Park Cancer Institute

• Karen Lutfey Spencer, University of Colorado-Denver

• Susan LaValley, State University of New York-Buffalo

• Julia Devonish, Roswell Park Cancer Institute