Associations with taking medication and their relationship with medication adherence

Abstract

Cognitive factors, like beliefs, have been studied extensively as determinants of medication (non-)adherence, while the role of affect associated with taking medicines is largely unknown. In the present study (N=525) we investigated affect by assessing patients’ first spontaneous associations with taking their medicines. With use of the affective imagery method, patients freely recalled the first association that came to mind. Three raters independently categorised all responses. Results showed that the associations with taking medication were related to self-reported medication adherence: patients who associated taking their medication with negative affect had the lowest adherence scores in our sample, while patients who associated taking their medication with the necessity of their medicines had the highest adherence scores. Results further suggested that negative associations were mainly affective and positive associations were mainly cognitive in nature. Our results support the idea that first associations (including affect) should be considered an important determinant of medication adherence. Interventions to increase adherence have the potential to be more effective when the role of affect as a determinant of adherence is considered.