Application of Item Response Theory in Validating the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale in Patients with Hypertension

Prepared by Shaloo Gupta, MS and Amir Goren, PhD, August, 2013. From Kantar Health.

Medication adherence for those with chronic conditions is generally poor, often around 50%. A recent Cochrane review suggested that improving adherence may have a greater impact on overall health than any treatment itself. Adherence can be assessed in several ways, and each method has its pros and cons. Indirect methods, such as self-report easures, offer the benefit of being inexpensive and easy to administer, and they account for patients’ assessment of actual medication use (compared with, for example, claims data), but at the cost of greater error and subjectivity.

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