Medication Adherence Research Paper

Evaluation of community pharmacists’ Perceptions and Usage of Social Media Resources to Improve Their Patients’ Medication Adherence

Benjamin Lewing
PHCA 6305 - Pharmacy Administration I

Abstract – put paper through turn it in zxz
In the past decade, there has been a steady rise in the usage of social media resources in health fields for health interventions. zxz xxxxOne of the ways social media resources have been used is to improve medication adherence, which is of particular interest due to the large estimated costs associated with medication non-adherence. This study will specifically look at how commonly community pharmacists use social media based medication adherence resources, and measures their perceptions of such resources. This
study will attempt to disseminate how knowledge of these resources is spread, and it will attempt to identify potential reasons of why pharmacists may have negative views of these resources. The goal for this research is to increase information regarding pharmacists’ perceptions towards social media based resources used for medication adherence, and the motivation is that the results may be used to encourage, aid, or optimize future development of such social media resources. From a web search, 50 pharmacies will be chosen, and pharmacists will be asked to participate in the study. Participating pharmacist will be given a brief zxz xxxxx1page questionnaire to fill out. The questionnaire is designed based on the innovation diffusion and adoption model, accordingly containing elements of the innovation, how information about the innovation is spread, and how society may receive the innovation.

Evaluation of Community Pharmacists’ Perceptions and Usage of Social Media Resources to Improve Their Patients’ Medication Adherence
Introduction
Significance In the past decade, there has been a steady rise in the usage of social media resources in health fields for health interventions.1-3 The opportunities available through the utilization of social media are exceptionally vast, and studies have shown there has been success in utilizing social media for health education, health promotion, behavior change, medication adherence, and many more healthcare related issues.1, 3, 4 Medication adherence is of particular interest because it is a universal issue and an important factor in improving patient health outcomes.5 Medication adherence is defined by the World Health Organization to be “The extent to which a person's behavior - taking medication, following a diet, and/or executing lifestyle changes, corresponds with agreed recommendations from a health care provider.”6 Medication non-adherence is a large pervasive health care quality issue, with an estimated cost of $100-300 billion each year in the United States.
5, 7 With this cost taken into account, the improvement of medication adherence is a very important topic that is being closely looked
at.
Social media is one area that is being examined as a way to increase medication adherence. Social media resources may increase medication adherence through facilitating communication between patients and caregivers, providing an online support forum for patients, and increasing healthcare or treatment education. Traditional interventions that are costly and time-consuming may be administered through social media in a way that is both effective and cost-efficient.5, 8-15 The term “social media” encompasses a broad range of communication and networking tools, sometimes referred to as “web 2.0”.4 These tools range from social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to media sharing sites such as YouTube, and to knowledge databases such as Medpedia.3 Because of the wide popularity of social media, there is potential for social media to be a critical resource for medication adherence. In particular, the community factor in social media may provide support for a patient to remain adherent, and studies have shown that patients prefer social networking site adherence resources such as Facebook because it makes them feel like they are not alone.5, 8, 16 Studies have shown application of social media tools to be effective at increasing adherence of weight loss programs, adolescent asthma self-management, and tobacco cessation 4, 11, 16 Currently, some pharmacists use social media to stay in contact with their patients, and use it as a way to receive feedback, distribute information, and provide reminders. 14 Social media is an ideal resource for pharmacists looking to provide innovative health care because of the popularity and economic nature of social media as well as the large variety of ways to distribute information. Through social media resources, pharmacists can interact with the general public, and there is great potential for pharmacists to use these novel venues of communication to encourage adherence to medication regimens.12, 17 There are three main concerns or limitations that are identified with social media medication adherence resources.
One concern is privacy - there are concerns that pharmacists may not be able to safe guard confidential information given the public nature of social media. Patients also have reservations based on the public nature of some of the resources. Another fear that many practitioners have is possibility of inaccurate information being spread and the possible misuse of that information. Finally, there is an issue in that social media medication adherence resources would only fit in certain situations and for certain groups of people; for instance, a primary group of people suffering from chronic conditions are senior citizens which are much less likely to utilize social media.4, 8, 17 However, despite some of the challenges, there is very much a need for pharmacists to participate in social media health resources because of the rising trend of social media usage, and pharmacist participation could help to avoid mis-information. Even though social media usage in the health field is trending to be more universal and medication adherence is a common topic, there has been little research done relating to pharmacist usage of medication adherence social media resources. Questions rise relating to if pharmacists know such resources are available, what views they have on using those resources, if they believe the resources are effective, and how commonly are these resources
used in a community pharmacy setting.