Introduction: Medication adherence refers to patients’ behavior of taking their medication as prescribed. Preserving graft functions and preventing rejection is closely related to immunosuppressive medication adherence in liver transplant recipients. Taking too many medications for a long period of time might cause medication non-adherence in liver transplant recipients. There is increasing evidence that medication non-adherence is common and associated with adverse outcomes and higher costs of care. This study aimed to explore the use of immunosuppressive medication experience in liver transplant recipients with poor adherence and reveal the factors affecting the medication adherence positively or negatively.
Method: The study was conducted as a qualitative study with phenomenological approach. The participants in this study were selected via the purposive sampling method. The purposive sampling criteria for this study were patients using immunosuppressive medication for at least three months and poor or non-adherence to immunosuppressive medication. Data was collected via in-depth personal interview between September 2019 and January 2020. Seven adult liver transplant recipients were included in this study, who had poor adherence to immunosuppressive medication. Data analysis was conducted through inductive content analysis with three steps of preparation, organization, and reporting phases.
Results: Content analysis revealed four main categories, nine categories and 31 sub-categories. Four main categories emerged from the interview data: medication adherence perception, types of medication non-adherence, factors affecting medication adherence negatively and factors affecting medication adherence positively.
Conclusion: This study explored that there are several factors affecting immunosuppressive medication adherence among liver transplant recipients, both positively and negatively. In order to achieve liver transplant recipients’ total adherence to immunosuppressive medication, the factors affecting medication adherence positively and negatively should be understood. The study results are expected to contribute developing strategies to improve immunosuppressive medication adherence in liver transplant recipients.