• Shubham Atal, Avik Ray, Shah Newaz Ahmed, Pooja Singh, Zeenat Fatima, Balakrishnan Sadasivam, Abhijit Pakhare, Ankur Joshi, and Rajnish Joshi.
• Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhopal, Bhopal, India.
• Int. J. Clin. Pract. 2021 Aug 1; 75 (8): e14316.

ObjectiveTo evaluate medication adherence, the effect of recall periods on self-reported adherence and factors influencing medication adherence among patients of chronic diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, particularly in the community.MethodsA cross-sectional cohort study was conducted among individuals with hypertension and/or diabetes coming as outpatients in community camps organised in a cluster of urban slums. Responses towards questions regarding self-reported quantitative and qualitative adherence for one week and one month along with information on pill burden, socio-demographic and other factors were recorded using a mobile application.ResultsAmong 379 participants living in urban slum communities, who were prescribed anti-hypertensive or oral anti-diabetic medications previously, mean medication adherence over previous one week was 67.99% (standard deviation (SD) ± 38.32) and 6.87 (SD ± 3.62) on a ten-point numeric scale. The medication adherence for one month showed a strong significantly positive correlation with that of 1 week for both percentage-based (r = +0.910, 95% CI = 0.864 to 0.950, P < .0001) and Likert (ρ = +0.836, 95% CI = 0.803 to 0.863, P < .0001) scales. Age (r = 0.219, 95% CI = 0.120 to 0.313, P = .043) and pill burden (r = -0.231, 95% CI = -0.145 to -0.322, P < .0001) were found to significantly affect medication adherence. The odds of random blood sugar reduction were found to be significant (OR 1.98, 95% CI = 1.30 to 3.00, P = .001) with adequate adherence. A linear regression equation was developed to predict medication adherence percentage for a patient which was found to have 61.8% predictive power using multilayer perceptron modelling.ConclusionOverall, medication adherence was sub-optimal. Adherence assessments can be reliably performed using either one week or one month recall periods. With further refinement and validation, the regression equation could prove to be a useful tool for physicians.© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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