Adherence to treatment for Chronic Conditions: Methodological challenges, a multidisciplinary workshop

The session will be livestreamed, the page will be available shortly before the start.

Adherence can be defined as "the extent to which a person's behaviour - taking medication, following a diet, and/or executing lifestyle changes, corresponds with agreed recommendations from a health care provider".

Poor adherence to treatment of chronic diseases is a worldwide problem of high impact and is growing as the burden of chronic diseases increases worldwide. Low and Middle Income countries are disproportionately affected.

Potential successful interventions to improve adherence can range from patient education, to behavioural interventions, to using new technologies and providing reinforcements and supervision. However, evaluating adherence interventions present many methodological challenges.

The aim of the meeting will be to present adherence related research projects for different chronic conditions (TB, Mental Health, Hypertension, Diabetes, CVD), and from different settings (China, India, Myanmar, Singapore, Colombia, Brazil), and discuss methodological challenges incorporating insights from different disciplines such as biostatistics, qualitative research, and behavioural sciences. Among some of the methodological issues to discuss we will cover definitions, tools to measure adherence, and study designs.

Presentations will include different projects and some of the methodological challenges faced during their implementation.

The session will conclude by identifiying some knowledge gaps and a research agenda for the adherence research field.

Programme

Chair: Pablo Perel

09.00 – 09.10

“Adherence to treatment of chronic diseases: its importance and research challenges” Speaker: Dr Pablo Perel, Associate Professor, LSHTM

09.12 – 09.22

“The txt2bhealthy mobile phone based intervention to reduce LDL cholesterol in patients at high risk of a cardiovascular event: intervention development” Speaker: Dr Caroline Free, Clinical Associate Professor

09.24 - 09.34

“Measuring adherence in electronic claims/electronic health record data - pros, cons and examples” Speaker: Dr Sarah-Jo Sinnott, Sir Henry Wellcome Post-Doctoral Fellow, LSHTM

09.30 – 09.42

“Measuring adherence for TB medication in Myanmar and China: challenges and questions”. Speaker: Dr Mishal Khan, Assistant Professor, LSHTM

09.48– 09.58

“Treating and adherence on e-interventions for mental health”. Speaker: Asmae Doukani, Research Assistant, LSHTM

10.00– 10.10

“Assessing clinical services and retention in care following screening for screning for hypertension and diabetes among Malawian adults: an urban/rural comparison" Speaker: Steffen Geis, Science Programme Manager, Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit

10.12 - 10.20

“Adherence to Diabetes and Hypertension medications from the patient’s perspective. Speaker: Dr Helena

Legido-Quigley, Associate Professor, National University of Singapore

10.20 – 10.40

Panel Discussion: Identifying knowledge gaps and a research agenda for the adherence research field.

A panel discussion on the strengths and limitations of the presented data sources and methods to measure adherence, common pitfalls to watch out for, and sources of bias among others. The session will conclude by identifying some knowledge gaps and a research agenda for the adherence research field.

10.40 – 11.00

Discussion with audience

Helena Legido Quigley, David Prieto and Pablo Perel, will facilitate the discussion and the contributions from the audience.