Development of the Japanese Medication Adherence Scale and Verification of Its Reliability and Validity in Hypertensive Patients

A 32-Item Japanese Medication Adherence Scale had been developed as a tool for evaluating the medication-taking behavior of hypertensive patients and predicting therapeutic efficacy, and an Internet survey of 990 hypertensive patients throughout Japan was performed. As a result, factor 1 “Expectation of pharmacological efficacy” (9 items), factor 2 “Motivation to be self-controlled in taking medication” (6 items), and factor 3 “Negative feelings about taking medication” (4 items) were identified, comprising a total of 19 items. The scale was highly reliable. Because it proved capable of discriminating between the 2 groups with different medication-taking status and blood pressure, its validity had also been confirmed.