Health Outcomes and Services Research

Medication Adherence: Behavioral and Psychological Factors

PI -Elizabeth Unni, PhD, MBA, BPharm, Chair and Associate Professor, Social, Behavior & Administrative Sciences

Within the context of chronic disease self-management by patients, Dr. Unni utilizes the behavioral theories and focuses on the behavioral and psychosocial aspects of medication adherence. Her work examines the influence of factors such as patient’s beliefs in their medications and illnesses and health literacy in improving medication adherence and developing interventions based on these factors. Understanding the significance of communication, a part of her work is on patient-provider communication and the impact of this communication, including the patient education materials, in influencing medication adherence. She is also interested in the measurement of medication adherence and has created a self-reported medication adherence scale which is validated in various chronic disease conditions. Her work continues to refine the scale in different disease conditions with different populations and settings. Dr. Unni is an expert on survey methodology and qualitative methods in data collection and analysis.

Unni, E.J., Sternbach, N., Goren, A. Using the Medication Adherence Reasons Scale (MAR-Scale) to identify the reasons for non-adherence across multiple disease conditions. Patient Preference and Adherence, 13, 993-1004 (2019).

Unni, E.J., Wagoner, E.V., Shiyanbola, O.O. Utilizing a 3S (Strategies, Source, and Setting) approach to understand the patient’s preferences when addressing medication non-adherence in patients with diabetes: A focus group study in a primary outpatient clinic. BMJ Open, 9(1), e024789 (2019).

Moya, A., Unni, E.J., Montuoro, J., Desselle, S.P. Engaging pharmacy technicians for advanced clinical support tasks in community pharmacies: A cluster analysis. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 59, S32-S38 (2019).

Shiyanbola, O.O., Pigarelli, D.W., Unni, E.J., et al. Design and rationale of a mixed methods randomized control trial: ADdressing Health literacy, bEliefs, adheRence and self-Efficacy (ADHERE) program to improve diabetes outcomes. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 14, 100326 (2019).

Schwartz, J.K., Unni, E.J. Letter by Schwartz and Unni Regarding Article, “Ethnic Differences in 90-Day Post stroke Medication Adherence”. Stroke, (2019). DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.119.026521

Unni, E.J., Gabriel,S., Ariely, R. A review of the use and effectiveness of digital health technologies in asthma patients. Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology, 121, 680-691 (2018).

Shiyanbola, O.O., Unni, E.J., Huang, Y., Lanier, C. Utilizing the Extended Self-Regulatory Model to Characterize Diabetes Medication Adherence: A Cross-Sectional Study. BMJ Open, 8, e022803 (2018). DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-022803.

Rose, T., Unni, E.J., Jones, G. Factors Influencing Nutrition Label Reading Behavior in Individuals with Selected Chronic Diseases. American Journal of Health Education, 49(4) (2019). DOI: 10.1080/19325037.2018.1486756

Shiyanbola, O.O., Unni, E.J., Huang, Y., Lanier, C. The association of health literacy with illness perceptions, medication beliefs, and medication adherence among individuals with type 2 diabetes. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, (2017). pii: S1551-7411(17)30686-1. DOI: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2017.12.005.

Unni, E.J., Sharp, L. Giving adherence intervention programs their due. Accepted for publication with Current Medical Research & Opinion, 11, 1 (2017). 2DOI: 10.1080/03007995.2017.1356709