Objective  To explore caregiver adherence to chronic medications and predictors of appropriate medication use.

Design  Descriptive, nonexperimental, cross-sectional study.

Setting  United States in May 2009.

Participants  2,000 adults randomly selected from a large national consumer panel.

Intervention  Web-based survey of community pharmacy patients.

Main outcome measure  Self-reported medication adherence.

Results  21% of those invited (3,775) responded to the survey invitation. Of the 2,000 individuals who were eligible to participate, 38% described themselves as caregivers. Among caregivers, 45% agreed that they were more likely to forget their own medications than medications for their caregivees. Caregivers were 10% more likely to forget to take their medications, 11% more likely to stop taking medications if they felt well, and 13% more likely to forget to refill their medications than noncaregivers (P < 0.001 for all). In fully adjusted models, caregivers had 36% greater odds (95% CI 0.52–0.79) of reporting that they were nonadherent compared with noncaregivers and increased medication use among caregivees was associated with worse adherence among caregivers (P < 0.05).

Conclusion  Medication nonadherence was common in this population, and caregivers were more likely to report poor medication adherence than noncaregivers. Considering that caregivers often engage health professionals, physicians and pharmacists may choose to screen for caregiving status. Pharmacists are uniquely positioned to intervene to enhance appropriate medication adherence.