A medicines adherence research project has been launched by a team working across Swansea Bay University Health Board (SBUHB), Community Pharmacy Wales (CPW) and Cardiff University. 

CPW announced yesterday that the team “wants to understand more about how adherence aids are used within community pharmacy practice”.

Read more: Foundation Trainee Pharmacist supervisors invited to undertake research study 

It is calling upon pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in Wales to complete a brief anonymous questionnaire to determine the barriers and enablers in the provision of adherence aids, so they can evaluate “how pharmacists assess and implement reasonable adjustments” when supporting patients with medicines adherence.

The research team labelled medication non-adherence a “significant global healthcare challenge”, with the World Health Organisation reporting that approximately 50% of medicines prescribed for long term conditions are “not taken as intended”, compromising effectiveness and contributing to avoidable medicines waste.

Read more: Call for community pharmacies to support sleep health study 

It said community pharmacies have a responsibility under the Equality Act 2010 to make “reasonable adjustments to ensure that individuals with a disability can access pharmacy services safely and effectively”.

While a range of interventions can be used to support medicines adherence such as medicines reminder charts, large print labels and monitored dosage systems, the team stressed that “increasing workload and service pressures may affect the consistency and sustainability of assessments relating to reasonable adjustments and adherence support”.

Read more: ‘Wake-up call’: IPA calls for the return of medicines use reviews 

“Despite legal obligations and increasing demand for medicines support, there is limited understanding of how Equality Act considerations are applied in practice when assessing, implementing, and reviewing adherence aids within community pharmacy,” the team added.

It said the results data will be used as the basis for further research to conduct interviews with community pharmacists and “eventually for a tool to help pharmacists improve adherence and support patients”.

CPW said it also intends to publish the findings in its newsletter once complete.

Read more: Community pharmacy creates £31.6bn of social value, says CPE 

The study is open until November 4. To participate, follow this link.

It comes after Foundational Trainee Pharmacist supervisors were invited earlier this week to undertake a research study evaluating how they experience a “community of care”.

And it follows a pharmacy charity chief executive earlier this month calling for community pharmacies to get involved in research that could help inform the sector’s sleep health services.