Polypharmacy and non-adherence to prescribed medicines in CKD

Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are often required to take multiple long-term medicines to manage disease progression and complications, as well as to treat co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular risk. This paper describes the results of quantitative data from a mixed methodology study conducted in 2012. There are few studies in the literature that examine non-adherence with prescribed medicines in patients with CKD who are not on renal replacement therapy. For this study, polypharmacy is defined as the prescription of more than five different oral medicines. Systematic reviews of interventions to improve adherence have shown little evidence of important outcomes.