The Development of a Screening Tool to Identify and Classify Nonadherence in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background: Medication nonadherence is a challenge in chronic disease management. Tools that can both determine adherence levels and analyze patient-specific reasons for nonadherence are lacking. Methods: Our tool was developed using 23 patient-reported items and its predictive performance was compared with the most widely used instrument in the literature. Results: One hundred thirty-three IBD patients were included, 44 (33%) were nonadherent and 89 (67%) were adherent. Our screening question, with 87% sensitivity and 64% specificity, was followed by a 9-item survey for patients qualified as nonadherent. Conclusions: Quantifying reasons for nonadherence can lead to more effective and personalized interventions for nonadherent patients. Medication nonadherence means that patients do not take medications as instructed by their physician. Our study created a short screening questionnaire to find out why patients with IBD might not take their medication.