Canadian Community Health Survey: Rapid response on prescriptions – cost-related non-adherence, 2016

The data were collected from all provinces between January and June 2016.

The content of this rapid response deals with non-adherence to prescription medication due to cost. Non-adherence can be defined by behaviours such as failing to fill, collect or take prescribed medication, reducing or skipping the medication dosage, or delaying filling prescriptions.

The questions related to the financial aspect of non-adherence to prescription medication aim to capture the direct costs of afforded or not afforded medication, in the last 12 months.

In addition, respondents are asked questions on the behaviours of health-care professionals and pharmacists to help alleviate the cost-related burden of their patients.

Respondents are also asked to report the health conditions for which prescriptions were issued and could not be afforded, and lastly, the negative effects on their health and other aspects of their life because of their inability to afford their prescriptions.

The data collected will be used to identify the segment of the Canadian population who engage in cost-related non-adherence of prescription medication, what health conditions are involved, and what trade-offs are made to their other expenses to compensate.

The data are now available in the Research Data Centres.

The addition of these questions to the Canadian Community Health Survey was sponsored by the University of British Columbia Centre for Health Services and Policy Research.