7 Medication Adherence Tips To Help You Stay on Track

When you have a chronic health condition, it can be difficult to remember to take your medication every day… especially if you don’t feel sick.

People with hypertension, glaucoma, type 2 diabetes, hepatitis or other conditions may not experience symptoms impacting their daily lives, making it harder for them to prioritize taking medication regularly. But even people with arthritis, acid reflux, depression or other conditions with noticeable symptoms may forget to take their medication like clockwork.

Fortunately, there are several methods which may help you adhere to your medication schedule as prescribed. Try these ideas:

Intertwine taking your medicine with a set activity

Do you need to remember to take a pill every morning? If you eat breakfast every morning, pairing the two activities may make it more likely that you’ll remember to take your medication, since you’re already accustomed to having eggs every day. When you set the table, include your pill bottle with your silverware and dishes to link the two habits.

The same idea may work if you always brush your teeth just before you go to sleep and you need to take medication at bedtime. Leaving your pill case next to your toothpaste may make you reach for it automatically when you see it during your wind-down routine.

You can use this technique to make medication-taking a more memorable part of your routine for any set activity that you do daily. Time your afternoon medication to coincide with lunchtime or your 3 p.m. snack. Use your mid-morning walk, your daily check-in phone call with your daughter or another established habit as the signal that it’s time to take your medicine.

Use a weekly pill organizer

Many people keep their medicine in a weekly pill organizer because it helps them keep track of multiple medications without carrying several bulky, amber-colored pharmacy vials. But a pill organizer may do more than keep everything neat and orderly – it may help you adhere to your daily medication regimen. If it’s Tuesday afternoon and you can’t remember if you’ve taken your post-lunch pills yet, it’s easy to find out: Just open the “afternoon” section in the “Tuesday” column and see whether it’s empty or not. If your pills are gone, you’ve already taken them. If they’re still there, it’s time to take them right now. With this method, you won’t take your medication twice by accident, and it’s less likely that you’ll skip a dosage.

Set an alarm on your phone

Adding an alarm to your phone to sound whenever you need to take your medication may help you comply with your doctor’s orders with greater consistency. This may be helpful if you need to take medicine at an unusual hour or during your busy workday, when you’re too distracted to stop and check the time. This technique may also be helpful if you need to take medicine exactly every few hours.

If you have more than one type of medication to take, consider adding an alert message that pops up with the name of the medication, so you won’t get confused. Another option: Using a medication-reminder app like Medisafe or Round Health.

Get “smart” pill bottles

There are a number of gadgets that may help you remember to take your medication. Smart pill bottle caps fit on pharmacy vials and let you know the last time that the bottle was opened, which should prevent you from taking a double dosage. Other bottles have alarms that go off at designated times to let you know that it’s time to take medication. Still, others can sync with a smartphone to let you know when it’s time to take medication or when you’ve missed a dose.

Go old school

If you’re not into gadgets, low-tech solutions may also help you remember your medication. You can use a dry-erase board to keep track of the pills that you need to take: Keep it in the kitchen near your medication. Write a chronological list of what medication you need at what hour, then erase each dose as you take it throughout the day. You won’t have to wonder whether or not you’ve taken the medication.

Involve your loved ones

Inform your family or friends about your medication schedule so they can help to remind you when it’s time to take your pills or refill your prescription. This may help you adhere to your doctor’s orders more readily than if you didn’t have this type of practical social support, according to a study published in the American Journal of Managed Care.

It isn’t enough to simply have a partner who lives with you; in order for someone to be helpful, he or she should provide you with practical reminders regularly, checking to see if you’ve taken your medication. Any friend or relative who’s interested in helping you maintain or improve your health may take on this role.

Adopt a weird habit

If you take medication regularly, it may be hard for you to remember whether or not you’ve taken your pill already for the day, because one day seemingly blends into the next. Remembering tends to get harder as people get older, according to research, which may lead you to skip doses or, possibly, inadvertently take a double dosage. But if you combine your medication-taking with an unusual stand-out gesture, like patting yourself on the head each time you pop a pill, you’re more likely to remember whether or not you’ve taken your medicine for the day, according to a study from American and German researchers.

This technique may work because it requires you to pay full attention to what you’re doing, or because the physical action creates a sensory experience which you associate with the activity, which may help to create a more vivid memory of the medication-taking experience. If you don’t want to pat yourself on the head each time you take medication, consider crossing your arms in front of you, or create your own signature move that you’ll remember to do each time that you take medicine.