Barriers to Adherence: Why Your Patients May Not Be Following Their Treatment Plans
For many practitioners, ensuring that patients are adherent to their treatment is a primary concern. You can provide a well-researched and comprehensive treatment plan, but how do you ensure that a patient follows your recommendations? In the past year, our Integrative Medical Advisory and Insights teams have researched this subject heavily to identify the primary barriers to adherence for patients as well as the key strategies Fullscript practitioners use to overcome these barriers. In this article, we will examine the concept of adherence and discuss the top barriers identified by Fullscript practitioners.
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What is patient adherence?
Adherence can be defined as the extent to which a patient’s behaviors follow an agreed-upon prescription or therapeutic regimen. (1)(2)() It is similar to “compliance”; however, adherence takes further consideration of the patient’s views and choices, and it allows them to play a more active role in the development of the treatment plan. Generally, treatment adherence rates decline for all patients over time, and the likelihood of this is influenced by many different factors, such as practitioner and patient education, cost, feasibility, and patient readiness to change. ()