Assessment of post-operative pain medication adherence after day case orthopaedic surgery: A prospective, cross-sectional study.

Background And Aim: Patients struggle to adhere to prescribed pain medication after surgery because of, inter alia, side effects, sleep disturbances and pain severity. This study aimed to determine the influence of various factors on, the extent of adherence to prescribed post-operative pain medication (POPM) measured by participant-reported pill count (PRPC) following day case orthopaedic surgery at a private South African hospital.

Methods: This prospective, quantitative cross-sectional study involving 120 participants (51 males, 69 females), used a structured questionnaire completed through a telephonic survey, 4 days after orthopaedic surgery.