Factors Associated with Self-Reported Treatment Adherence During Pregnancy and Preliminary Psychometric Assessment of the PMAM in Primary Care
Andrei Pănuș, Virginia Maria Rădulescu, Linda Nicoleta Bărbulescu, Marian Valentin Zorilă, Kamal Adina Maria, Gheorghe Gindrovel Dumitra, Denis Anamaria Mereț, Constantin Kamal KamalBackground/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.