The Association Between Medication Adherence and Disease Stability in Patients with Severe Mental Disorders and Area Variation: Community-Based Prospective Study in Southwest China

To examine measures for managing mentally disordered patients in communities, this study aimed to examine the association between medication adherence (MA) and disease stability (DS), and their area variations in a sample of 145,860 patients with severe mental disorders in 19 municipalities during 2006–2013 in southwest China. The rates of stability and adherence varied from 27.7–64.4% to 28.8–63.6%, respectively, over the same period. MA was positively associated with DS (adjusted odds ratio = 1.39, 95% confidence interval 1.29–1.51). Large variations in the rate of DS and MA among municipalities could reflect management differences at this level.