An individual can have long gaps with no medication dispensings and yet appear fully compliant based on a large days' supply dispensed toward the end of the measurement window.
The objective of the study was to assess the adherence to hormonal contraception (pill, patch, ring, or injectable) among women veterans and examine the relationships between race/ethnicity and the months of contraceptive supply dispensed with contraceptive adherence.
Adherence was calculated as the sum of the days' supply dispensed during the year divided by 56.
We calculated refill adherence using CMA [i.e., (number of days' supply dispensed during the study period)/(number of days in the study period)].
Patients were defined as discontinuing cinacalcet if there was greater than a 30-day gap from their last pill day, calculated from the days supply dispensed.
It is not known if patients received statins during their hospital admission or had a supply dispensed at the time of discharge, as PBS records do not record hospital drug dispensing.
It is computed as the total days' supply dispensed during the observation window, including the medication dispensed at tk, divided by the time from t1 to end of study: CMA2 = (n1+ n2+ … + nk) / (te – t1).
For loans in anticipation of a future NHS prescription, the additional work (ie, clinical check, determining evidence of previous supply, dispensing and documentation) undertaken by the pharmacists is not remunerated, either by the patient or the NHS.
In addition, any program that increases the number of day supply dispensed to the patients should carefully target specific populations and therapies whose potential savings and/or health outcomes overcome the potential extra costs that result from increased utilization and wastage.
Secondly, we repeated the primary analysis with current statin users redefined as people whose most recent prescription for a statin would be expected to last at least until the index date, on the basis of the days' supply dispensed and assuming 80% compliance.
