Factors Associated with Self-Reported Treatment Adherence During Pregnancy and Preliminary Psychometric Assessment of the PMAM in Primary Care
Background/Objectives: Medication-taking behaviour during pregnancy may be associated with treatment-related beliefs, emotional concerns, information sources, and clinician–patient communication. We examined these cross-sectional associations and the preliminary measurement properties of the Pregnancy Medication Adherence Model (PMAM). Methods: This cross-sectional study included 355 pregnant women with prescribed treatment recruited from nine general practices in Dolj County, Romania. Q25 was analysed on its five-category scale and using an operational threshold of ≥4. Internal consistency, principal component analysis, an ordinal exploratory factor analysis based on polychoric correlations, regression modelling, and review-stage sensitivity analyses addressing criterion overlap were performed. Results: Overall, 255 participants (71.8%) scored ≥4 on Q25. The four multi-item domains had Cronbach’s α values of 0.897–0.935. Parallel analysis and principal-axis factoring with oblique rotation supported four factors; salient loadings were 0.797–0.925 and no secondary loading reached 0.30. In the original adjusted binary model, cognitive understanding, emotional reassurance, clinician–patient communication, and lower endorsement of information-seeking and social-influence items were associated with Q25 ≥ 4. After Q23 was removed from the communication score and Q19 and Q24 were omitted, these four associations persisted (adjusted ORs 1.90–2.55). Conclusions: The findings identify concurrent associations between medication-related perceptions and a single self-reported treatment-behaviour item. PMAM remains an exploratory framework; external psychometric evaluation and prospective assessment against defined medication-specific adherence and clinical outcomes are required before clinical use.
Authors
- Andrei Pănuş
- Gindrovel Gheorghe Dumitra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8982-9645)
- Denis Anamaria Mereț
- Virginia Maria Rădulescu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9028-7583)
- Constantin Kamal
- Kamal Adina Maria
- Linda Nicoleta Bărbulescu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4036-4418)
- Marian Valentin Zorilă
Institutions
- University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova (RO)
- Transylvania University of Brașov (RO)
- University of Craiova (RO)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Healthcare
- Published
- 2026-09-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare14193223
- Primary Topic
- Pregnancy and Medication Impact
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00