Neuropsychological and everyday predictors of medication adherence and employment status following kidney transplantation

The relative utility of traditional neuropsychological versus everyday cognitive measures in predicting specific functional outcomes is relatively unknown. I investigated the utility of both traditional neuropsychological and everyday measures of cognition in predicting medication adherence (n = 103) and employment status (n = 94) among kidney transplant (TX) recipients. Results indicated that both poorer performance on the Everyday Problem Solving test and a higher number of depressive symptoms were predictive of poorer self-reported medication adherence. Furthermore, being on antidepressant medication, having a higher number of depressive symptoms, and poorer performance on traditional neuropsychological measures were predictive of fewer hours worked. This study highlights the association of neurocognitive and psychosocial status with medication adherence and employment status following kidney transplantation, and the results suggest that the relative importance of traditional and everyday measures is dependent upon the outcome examined.