Abstract
Aim: Pregnant women are hypothesized to have low adherence to prescribed
medication, because of concerns about toxicity and harmful effects on
the unborn child. However, very little is known about the actual
adherence to prescribed medication during pregnancy. We determined to
what extent women follow treatment recommendations regarding prescribed
medication use in mid-pregnancy. Methods: Dutch women participating in
the PRIDE Study completed a six-week diary on medication use.
Additionally, pharmacy records were obtained. For each medication
dispensed, we determined three measures of adherence: 1) whether use was
reported in the diary (actual use), 2) difference between dispensing
date and date of first reported use (initiation time), and 3) proportion
of days with at least the correct number of doses taken (implementation
adherence). Results: During the six-weeks study period, 235 of 816 women
(29%) were prescribed medication. Actual use was highest for
medications used for chronic conditions (88%; 95% confidence interval
[95% CI] 81-93), followed by medication for pregnancy-related
conditions (79%; 95% CI 71-86) and medication for occasional and
short-time use (69%; 95% CI 60-77). We observed a ≥1 day delay in
treatment initiation for 42% of medications dispensed for the first
time in the study period. For medications that were actually used, mean
implementation adherence was 74.2% (95% CI 69.3-79.2). Conclusion:
Although actual use of medications dispensed was high, many pregnant
women did not adhere to treatment recommendations. This non-adherence
may impact maternal and child health and lead to exposure
misclassification in studies in perinatal pharmacoepidemiology relying
on administrative databases.