Patient compliance: recognition of factors involved and suggestions for promoting compliance with therapeutic regimens

Abstract

Patient compliance is paramount in the effectiveness of therapeutic regimens. Without compliance therapeutic goals cannot be achieved, resulting in poorer patient outcomes. The social and psychological factors thought to influence compliance are identified as (a) knowledge and understanding including communication, (b) quality of the interaction including the patient-provider relationship and patient satisfaction, (c) social isolation and social support including the effect of the family, (d) health beliefs and attitudes-health belief model variables, and (e) factors associated with the illness and the treatment including the duration and the complexity of the regimen. Noncompliance is a significant problem and a major challenge for the health care team. Practical advice is offered for nurses and other health care professionals to increase patient compliance with therapeutic regimens. These include factors involved in the patient-provider relationship, communication skills and information-giving, and the mobilization of existing social support networks. Further research is needed to provide more conclusive results into the factors involved in patient compliance and to test the effectiveness of compliance-enhancing strategies.

Hospital Discharge Instructions: Comprehension and Compliance Among Older Adults

“…29 Social isolation was strongly associated with noncomprehension of the exercise instructions in this study, adding to prior reports of social isolation as a predictor of non-compliance. [30][31][32] Cognition and high school education were not associated with non-comprehension in any domain of the discharge instructions, although health literacy has been previously identified as a barrier to comprehension. 1,2,6,8 Factors associated with non-comprehension may help identify patients at greater risk, but do not provide a rationale for non-comprehension.…”

Avaliação da adesão ao tratamento através de questionários: estudo prospectivo de 73 crianças portadoras de leucemia linfoblástica aguda

“…It is important that information provided is clear, that there is no ambiguity and that patient needs be evaluated periodically. 22 The primary motive for failures to administer chemotherapy was forgetfulness. This finding is compatible with other reports in the literature which have found that forgetfulness, worries and lack of medication were the motives most often cited by parents of cancer patients to explain medication compliance failures.…”

The attitudes of pregnant women and midwives towards raised BMI in a maternity setting: A discussion of two repertory grid studies

“…(Goold & Lipkin, 1999). If a pregnant woman with a raised BMI perceives their doctor to have judgemental attitudes, this will be given disproportional weight and likelihood of ongoing engagement with care may decrease (Goold & Lipkin, 1999;Cameron, 1996).…”