Effect of Clinical and Attitudinal Characteristics on Obtaining Comprehensive Medication Reviews

BACKGROUND: Comprehensive medication reviews (CMRs) consist of in-depth reviews of patients’ medications to identify effectiveness or safety problems and often generate cost savings for individuals. Despite their advantages, CMRs are not widely obtained. Previous studies found that older age, female sex, and experience of side effects were associated with obtaining a medication review. OBJECTIVE: To quantify the association between attitudinal and clinical factors with intention and predict future behavior to obtain a CMR among Medicare Part D beneficiaries. METHODS: A sample of Medicare Part D beneficiaries from 1 health care plan (n = 660) completed a 14-item survey over the telephone assessing factors that were hypothesized to affect their intention and behavior to obtain a CMR. The survey collected medication use history and health care information with the medication user self-evaluation tool, health status, adherence, intention to obtain a CMR, and demographic characteristics. Subjects subsequently were informed that they could obtain a CMR from their pharmacies. Claims data were obtained that indicated which subjects received a CMR. Two dependent variables were predicted: intention to schedule a CMR using a multivariate linear regression model and receipt of a CMR using a logistic regression and including intention as a predictor variable. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 76.6 (SD = 7.61) years; 71% were female; and participants took an average of 5.2 (SD = 3.18) medications. The intention to have a CMR was 2.85 (SD = 1.41) on a 5-point scale, and 5.6% of the participants actually had a CMR. Worrying about medications doing more harm than good, number of pharmacies where participants obtained their medications from, number of medications, and number of medical conditions predicted intention to obtain a CMR. Patients who perceived their health status to be poorer compared with others their age were more likely to have a CMR. Intention to obtain a CMR was not associated with receipt of a CMR. CONCLUSIONS: Stakeholders should target patients who perceive their health to be poor for a CMR, hence expanding the scope of CMRs and increasing the number of older adults benefiting from this service.