About our research

An estimated one in two patients do not take their medicines as prescribed by their Doctor or Pharmacist. This is termed 'non-adherence' and has been identified by the World Health Organisation as an international priority as it presents a significant public health challenge that causes avoidable mortality and morbidity, and avoidable spending.

Studies have shown that there are many reasons that patients don't follow their prescription directions and that forgetting to take medication only accounts for 2% of all cases.

To address this problem we have developed and validated a tool called the Medication Adherence Barriers Questionnaire (IMAB-Q) to assist medical professionals in identifying the reason or reasons why a patient is struggling to take their medications as prescribed and to signpost them to the appropriate help or interventions according to their reason/s. 

The purpose of this survey is to decide on the things that are most important to measure in a trial that will test the effectiveness of the IMAB-Q tool. These outcomes will also be published and shared within the international research community so that they will be used in other medicines adherence trials and help researchers to follow a consistent approach in this type of research.