Background

Medication nonadherence is a multifaceted problem, especially for people with chronic diseases. Increasingly, our society relies upon medications to treat diseases and conditions, prevent hospitalization, and improve quality of life. Numerous studies have shown that medicines improve clinical outcomes and reduce illness, disability, and death. Despite such findings, many people do not realize the full potential benefits of their medications; too often this situation is the result of their failure to take some or all of the medications as prescribed.

While medical non adherence is an issue across the globe, this problem is exacerbated in a country like India where health care systems are not nearly efficient enough for a mammoth population. There are many reasons that have led to India’s history of weak healthcare systems.

Health care has not been a vote-catching subject and the government spends only  about 1.2% of its GDP on it. Health insurance is fragmented and less than one-third of the population has coverage. Overall, access to health care is poor, fragmented, skewed to urban areas, and often of low quality.

In light of this context, MAST aims to shed light on issues often ignored by the Indian healthcare system. In a country with dismal literacy rates, public health awareness is extremely important to ensure people are able make the best out of whatever medical facilities they have access to. Since there are very few hospitals and doctors per capita, it is even more essential for us as a society to try to ensure people practice medical adherence to avoid further complications and disease progressions.