Medication Acceptability and Adherence Study; MAAS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Feasibility study to design and test a questionnaire to estimate the influence of medicine characteristics on patient acceptability and adherence.
IRAS ID
104188
Contact name
Debi Battacharya
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of East Anglia
Research summary
The aim of the study is to determine whether medication characteristics influence patient acceptability and adherence to treatment. With scientific advances, the presentation of medicines has improved dramatically from crudely formulated liquids and powders to elegant formulations of tablets, capsules, gels, melts etc. Prescribers are therefore no longer faced with selecting the most appropriate drug but also, potentially the most appropriate formulation. Numerous factors are thought to influence whether a patient decides to adhere to their prescribed medication regimen, however, the little research evidence that has been reported about medication characteristics is limited clinical trials. With an aging population, the prescribing of liquid formulations is ever increasing and therefore, this study will investigate the acceptability of a liquid formulation relative to a tablet and whether this influences patient adherence to treatment.
The study will recruit people admitted to a medical ward for older people and prescribed alendronate tablets. Consenting patients will receive one month’s supply of liquid alendronate and then switch back to alendronate tablets which will be continued by their general practitioner once discharged from hospital. Participant opinion regarding acceptability of both the liquid and tablet formulation will be sought. Participants will also be asked to report whether the formulation impacts on their likelihood of adherence to the treatment regimen. The questionnaire used to assess acceptability will be rigorously developed from a systematic review and will be tested with a small number of patients to ensure that it is accurately measuring the desired parameters prior to the main study commencing.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/0901
Date of REC Opinion
2 Aug 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion