Aiding patient adherence through packaging design
Patient adherence describes the extent to which a person’s behaviour – for example, taking medication, following a diet or executing lifestyle changes – corresponds with agreed recommendations from a healthcare provider. A growing body of evidence suggests that medication adherence programs have the potential to greatly reduce health spending and generate significant savings for taxpayers in the process.
This is already a major challenge, for example, research shows that patients not taking their medicines properly costs the UK’s National Health Service £500 million a year.
According to the World Health Organisation one of the factors that contributes to poor adherence is a lack of knowledge, as patients often misunderstand treatment instructions. Pharmaceutical packaging therefore plays an incredibly important role, given the information it provides that helps patients abide by the proper dosing schedule.
As a leading provider of printed primary and secondary packaging and support services to healthcare customers throughout the world, Essentra can help aid patient adherence through clear display and allowing adequate space for information and enhancing ease of use.