Analysis: Ft. Lauderdale Patients Worst In Nation Taking Meds As Prescribed
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - Patients in the Fort Lauderdale area ranked as the worst in the nation for not taking their medications as prescribed.
The recent analysis was conducted by the MediSafe Project, a medication management program, which all the people who were studied, subscribed to either as a phone app or computer program. The program is designed to help them remember to take their prescriptions on time and keep track of their meds.
"These results are a wake-up call," said MediSafe CEO Omri "Bob" Shor, whose Israel-based company launched in November 2012 and has nearly 150,000 users, more than 30,000 of whom are in the United States. "People are not adhering [to prescription directions] the way they should."
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Shor attributed Fort Lauderdale's numbers to the possibility that patients are not being adequately educated on how to take their meds properly, or why it's essential that they should.
Brooklyn, N.Y., recorded the second-worst compliance record, and Baltimore, Md., came in third, based on how users described their city of residence or how their computer's IP address identified their location.
MediSafe studied how patients took 1.7 million doses of medication from August to October, and found that subscribers living in the Fort Lauderdale area had the worst record — with three-quarters of its 600 users reporting that they did not take their medications properly.
Users of the MediSafe program are notified when it's time to take their medication, and have to respond to the alert by answering "yes," "no" or "skip" as to whether they took the appropriate dose. "They should be adhering 100 percent of the time," Shor said.
Medicines that control diabetes are the drugs most likely not to be taken as prescribed, MediSafe found, followed by those designed to lower cholesterol and high blood pressure.
Shor said he found another MediSafe study result even more interesting: Patients with the worst prescription adherence rates were 20- to 29-year-olds, followed by 30- to 39-year-olds. Coming in third were those ages 60 to 69. Those ages 70 to 79 reported stronger compliance rates than all their younger counterparts.
"Most people see non-adherence as an old people thing," Shor said. "But we found its the people in their 20s who are not taking their medications correctly.
The cities with the worst medication adherence rates, according to the MediSafe survey are:
Fort Lauderdale
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Baltimore, Md.
Phoenix, Ariz.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Houston, Texas
Dallas, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
Washington, D.C.
Atlanta, Ga.
