Many teens have chronic illnesses or disease, or even disorders that may require daily medication. Asthma, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, ADHD, bipolar are all among the medical problems that require daily medications to keep you healthy. Teens in particular have trouble with adherence to their medical treatment plans. A review in the Journal of Adolescent Health addresses this problem with medical adherence and how it relates to teens with chronic illness.
This article notes that surprisingly the barriers that adolescents report that interfere with their medical treatment is very specific to actual adolescence and is most likely related to adolescent development. Teens report a lot of the same barriers, for example, teens want to seem normal to their peers, and they want to have control over their own life, these feelings are very specific to teenage development. Other common reasons that Teens don’t take their medications as directed are forgetfulness and also unwanted side effects.
When a teen has a chronic illness, adherence is very important and non-adherence can have serious consequences. What can we do to help? It is important that the physicians who treat teens with these conditions understand how their age affect how they see their disease and treatment. This way they can communicate with the teens better to help them understand their disease and the treatment. Simplified drug dosing (such as once a day dosing) can also help teens remember their mediations if this is a problem. Having a teen take medication at the same time each day for example while brushing their teeth can also help.
Kids with diabetes have a hard time remembering to check their insulin levels and blood glucose levels, and it is very important that they keep track of all their levels, the consequences could be deadly. In 2010 a small study at nationwide Children’s Hospital was successful in sending personalized text messages to patients regarding insulin and medication maintenance. As teens main form of communication is through texting, this could be just the ticket Doctors need to keep their teenage patients on track.
Adhering to medical treatment for chronic diseases is important for long term health. We need to work together to continue to find ways to help teens manage their chronic health problems, to ensure a happy and healthy future.