Compliance with the treatment

Implications of non-compliance

Abstract

Aim: review the present definition and the factors associated with non-compliance with the treatment and the methodologies that improve adherence to the therapy.

Context: the patients who inadvertently omit several doses and the doctors who attribute poor control to lack of drug efficacy are not aware that the underlying problem is a poor adherence to the prescribed treatment. Non-compliance is a world-wide phenomenon of serious consequences that appears at all ages; it is the case in children as well as in elderly people. It is observed in almost all the stages of chronic diseases and there is tendency to get worse with time.

The complexity of the phenomenon of non-adherence to the therapy involves factors associated to the patient, the disease, the environment, the drug and the interaction doctor-patient that require a multidimensional approach.

Conclusion: after 35 years, non-compliance continues in 59% of the cases, likewise, the proportion of hospitalizations as a result of treatment's interruption (33 to 69%). The mortality related to the non-adherence registers alarming numbers that have stayed the same for more than 15 years.