Employment Status and Medicine Adherence in Bipolar Disorder: A Theory-Based Evaluation

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine how medication adherence differs in patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder who have different employment status and also to examine the relationship of employment status with disorder severity and sociodemographic variables from the perspective of Integrated Behavioural Model (IBM), one of the health behaviour models. To that end, 167 patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder were reached. IBM Bipolar Disorder Medication Adherence Inventory, Medication Adherence Scale, and medication adherence in terms of measured medication level in blood were used. At the end of the analyses conducted, it was found that both the severity of disorder and the medication nonadherence of civil servants were higher than other groups with different employment status. It is concluded that there is a need for intervention programs for medication adherence, especially for civil servant groups with bipolar disorder.