The Agency for Healthcare Research ...

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released the inferences of a study on medication usage in patients with chronic illnesses. According to the report, about couple thirds of chronically ill adults do not reckon their physicians when they have to carve back on their medications because of the preciousness AHRQ surveyed more than 4000 adults older than 50 years who were taking medications for diabetes, depression, heart conditions, or high cholesterol evens More than 600 of the patients said they had stopped taking a certain quantity of medication in the past year because of preciousness and two thirds of this clump said they did not reveal their physicians in advance. Of those who did not count their physician, 58 percent said they did not believe their physician could help them. Patients who did talk to their physician said their medications were not changed to les expensive alternatives, and scarcely any reported getting any assistance, like as information about programs that help pay physic costs or where to purchase cheaper drugs. The study, "Cost-Related Medication Underuse: Do Patients with Chronic Illnesses relate Their Doctors?" was published in the September 13 2004 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. An abstract of the report is available online at http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/164/16/1749.

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