The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7417 p312
9 September 2006

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British Pharmaceutical Conference 2006

Communications research recognised with practice research award medal

Rob Horne, professor of behavioural medicine at the School of Pharmacy, University of London, was awarded the Chemist and Druggist Practice Research Award Medal at the 2006 British Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester this week.

The award is presented annually to somebody in the field of pharmacy practice research who has made an outstanding contribution in that area. Professor Horne’s current research focuses on the development of interventions to improve communications between clinicians and patients in order to help patients get the best from their medicines and other treatments.

Professor Horne told participants that effective interventions to improve patient adherence to treatment are elusive. He believes the problem is that the cause of non-adherence is often not recognised.

His research has focused on developing valid methods to measure people’s beliefs and behaviour, using these measurements to look at relationships between beliefs and behaviour and then conducting intervention studies to find out whether these beliefs can be changed. Professor Horne has developed a tool that measures specific beliefs that people have about treatment, as well as more general beliefs about medicines. The two core specific beliefs are necessity beliefs — individuals’ perception of their need for treatment — and concerns about treatment, he explained. His research has shown that these beliefs vary considerably across a sample. If concerns before treatment are high and perceived necessity is low then adherence is likely to be low, he has found.

Another factor that influences adherence is a clash between how patients think about their illnesses and medical models of illnesses. Professor Horne explained that a person’s reason for non-adherence is often logical but misplaced. For example, patients may believe that if their symptoms disappear then treatment can be stopped. However, the medical models of chronic diseases such as asthma and hypertension are at odds with this belief.

Professor Horne concluded by saying that early results from his intervention studies have been positive and show that beliefs are not set in stone and can be changed through education and appropriate interventions.