Acceptable number of oral pills that can be taken at one time by dialysis patients

Abstract

［Objective］ In order to improve drug adherence, we interviewed dialysis patients about how many pills they could reliably take per dose (hereafter referred to as the acceptable pill count). ［Method］ A total of 455 chronic hemodialysis outpatients were interviewed about the acceptable pill count, and the relationships between patient background factors and the total number of pills prescribed per day (hereafter referred to as the actual pill count) were analyzed. ［Results］ The median acceptable pill count was 5.5 (4.5‒7.0) pills/dose, and the modal acceptable pill count was 5 pills (19.8％). The acceptable pill count was not related to sex or dialysis vintage, but decreased as age increased and was higher in patients with diabetic mellitus and those on semi‒night dialysis. The median actual pill count was 16.8 (11.4‒23.3) pills/day and was positively correlated with the acceptable pill count. Multiple regression analysis showed that the presence of diabetes, semi‒night dialysis, and the actual pill count were significant independent positive predictors of the acceptable pill count. ［Considerations］ The positive correlation between the acceptable pill count and the actual pill count may be due to patients’ habituation and acceptance of high pill burdens.