¹Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif., USA

Correspondence: Helen Kastrissios, PhD, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Room S-169, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5113.

^†Nicole Flowers supported by funding made available through the Stanford Medical Student Scholars Program.

^*Supported by grant AI27666 from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Bethesda, Md.).

Received 9 August 1995; Accepted 3 November 1995.

Abstract

Medical students were introduced to issues relating to medication noncompliance in a simulated clinical setting. Compliance with either a twice-a-day or a three-times-a-day regimen was monitored with use of electronic monitoring devices for a 2-week interval. Compliance with the twice-a-day regimen was higher than compliance with the three-times-a-day regimen, although the difference was not significantly different. Overall, 71% of the prescribed doses were taken by the medical student participants; however, only 46.5% of the doses were taken at the prescribed dosing frequency and 28.5% were taken at the prescribed intervals. The majority of students linked dose taking with routine daily activities and reported that their hectic lifestyles adversely influenced compliance. Similar factors might be expected to influence compliance in patient populations. The goal of this exercise was to demonstrate to future physicians the difficulties that patients have with compliance to prescribed medications.