The relations between cognitive status and medication adherence in patients treated for memory disorders

Medication adherence has increasingly been recognized as an important factor in elders' health. Various studies have shown that medication nonadherence is associated with poor health status in elders. As part of a study of the effects of two interventions to promote medication adherence in patients treated for memory problems, information on medication adherence and cognitive status was collected at three month intervals. Thirty patients were assigned to control or treatment conditions and adherence was evaluated with an electronic monitoring device and cognitive status was evaluated at three month intervals. We have previously reported on the effectiveness of the interventions to promote adherence. In this paper we examine the relations of cognitive status and adherence over time using a partial least squares path model. Adherence consistently predicted cognitive status at later time points, while cognition did not, in general, predict adherence. These results are consistent with the "healthy adherer" effect noted in other studies.