RESEARCH ARTICLE
Factors Associated with the Effectiveness of a Telephone-Based Nursing Strategy for Enhancing Medication Adherence in Schizophrenia
José Manuel Montes1, Jorge Maurino2, *, Teresa Diez2, Jerónimo Saiz-Ruiz3
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 7
First Page: 117
Last Page: 119
Publisher ID: CPEMH-7-117
DOI: 10.2174/1745017901107010117
Article History:
Received Date: 3/12/2010Revision Received Date: 3/3/2011
Acceptance Date: 14/3/2011
Electronic publication date: 9/6/2011
Collection year: 2011

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
A post hoc analysis was made to identify factors associated with success following a 4-month telephone-based strategy for enhancing adherence to antipsychotic treatment in schizophrenia. A total of 928 stable outpatients were randomized to receive a monthly telephone call provided by a nurse or routine clinical care. Logistic regression with a backward stepwise procedure was used. A higher percentage of patients in the intervention group (25.7%, n=109) improved adherence at the end of the study compared with the control group (16.8%, n=74) (p=0.0013). The intervention was significantly associated with adherence improvement in those patients with a previous negative attitude towards medication (OR=4.7, 95% CI =2.4-9.0, p<0.0001). A slight concordance was obtained between adherence improvement and improvement in patient perception of treatment (kappa=0.21; 95% CI=0.15-0.27). The identification of factors related to the effectiveness of a specific intervention would offer clinicians the opportunity to more adequately select patients who are eligible for such intervention.