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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Psychiatr Res. 2012 Jul 16;46(12):1595–1599. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.06.011

Table 2.

Associations between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Non-Adherence to Medications among Medical Outpatients

Type of Non- Adherence Unadjusted Adjusted for age, sex Fully adjusted*
OR (95% CI) P OR (95% CI) P OR (95% CI) P
Overall, do not take medications as prescribed 1.85(1.37–2.50) <0.001 1.73 (1.27–2.34) <0.001 1.47 (1.03–2.10) 0.04
Forget to take medications 1.90 (1.44–2.52) <0.001 1.87 (1.41–2.47) <0.001 1.32(0.95–1.83) 0.09
Decide to skip medications 2.01 (1.44–2.82) <0.001 1.99 (1.41–2.80) <0.001 1.95 (1.31–2.91) 0.001

Abbreviations: OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; PHQ-9, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 item version

*

All variables from Table 1 that were associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at P<.20 were entered into ordinal logistic regression models to evaluate the association of PTSD with the three medication adherence outcomes. Covariates included in each of the three fully adjusted models include age, sex, depression, social support score, alcohol use, and history of hypertension, elevated cholesterol, diabetes, myocardial infarction, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Other variables significantly associated with not taking medications as prescribed included age (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97–0.99), female gender (OR 2.53, 95% CI 1.29–4.94), and diabetes (OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.01–2.29). Other variables significantly associated with forgetting to take medications included depression (PHQ-9 score ≥ 10) (OR 2.09; 95% CI 1.48–2.94); hypercholesterolemia (OR 1.43, 95%CI 1.07–1.92); and diabetes (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.07 – 2.25). Other variables associated with deciding to skip medications included age (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.96–0.99), at risk alcohol use (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.12–2.27), and diabetes (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.25–3.06).