Abstract
INTRODUCTION: In long-term illnesses, monitoring is an essential part of successful pharmacotherapy. Medicine users' experiences on monitoring have not been widely studied even though they have an important role in the implementation of pharmacotherapy. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the medicine users' experiences on the implementation of pharmacotherapy monitoring. The focus was on the instructions received regarding the frequency of follow-up visits in health care, the actual frequency of the visits, and the experienced sufficiency of monitoring. Furthermore, we aimed to identify the characteristics of respondents and pharmacotherapy that were associated with implementation of pharmacotherapy monitoring. METHODS: We conducted an online survey targeted at Finnish people ≥18 years who have requested a prescription renewal in MyKanta patient portal in October 2021. We used descriptive statistics and logistic regression in the analyses. RESULTS: 1723 individuals completed the questionnaire. Of them, 97.9% (n = 1687) were using prescription medicines and were included in the study. Of the study population, 57.1% had received instructions regarding follow-up visits in health care related to pharmacotherapy monitoring, 70.3% had an annual follow-up visit, and 64.3% felt monitoring was sufficient with all their pharmacotherapies. Several respondents and pharmacotherapy related characteristics were associated with the implementation of pharmacotherapy monitoring. Having diabetes and a designated health care unit responsible for monitoring were associated with well-implemented monitoring, while unfamiliarity with the goals set for pharmacotherapy was strongly associated with poorly implemented monitoring. CONCLUSIONS: In most cases, the medicine users experienced that the monitoring of pharmacotherapies was well-implemented. Having diabetes, a designated health care unit and familiarity with the goals set for pharmacotherapy were associated with well-implemented monitoring. These findings indicate that monitoring practices are well-implemented for diabetes. Furthermore, centralized monitoring in health care unit and understanding of goals set for pharmacotherapy would enhance individual's monitoring of pharmacotherapy.