Feasibility and Acceptability of a Complex Intervention to Improve Initial Medication Adherence

The IMA intervention promotes health literacy and patient participation in the decision-making process during the recommendation and prescription of a new drug for the management of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The IMA intervention has four main components: 1. Training for healthcare professionals (GPs, nurses, and community pharmacists) on non-initiation, shared-decision making, health literacy and use of decision aids; 2. Intervention support tools; decision aids (leaflets and website) and implementation tools (dispensing alert in community pharmacies when dispensing insulins and antiplatelet drugs); 3. Shared decision-making process during the GP's consultation; and 4. Information support provided by the nurses and community pharmacists that use the intervention decision aids to explore the patients' doubts and standardise the discourse between primary healthcare professionals.

Patients received the usual care when being prescribed a new prescription for treatments of cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Nurses and community pharmacists were asked to also provide usual care to those patients. Community pharmacists from the control group had the dispensing alert available when dispensing insulins and antiplatelet drugs.