Non Compliance

This idea of non – compliance has been observed in my clinical practice in many different capacities. I have witnessed patients not adhering to their prescribed diet, continuing to smoke against medical advice, or not taking prescribed medications. All of which lead to poor patient outcomes. Therefore, I chose this topic to explore possible reasons for non- compliance and possible solutions to non- compliance. I will begin the process an “actual” definition of non-compliance. According to the World Healthcare Organization (2003) the definition of non- compliance is “the extent to which a person’s behavior—taking medication, following a diet, and/or executing lifestyle changes—corresponds with agreed recommendations from a healthcare provider”.
While doing my research I noticed “the terms adherence and compliance are used interchangeably. However, their connotations are somewhat different: adherence presumes the patient's agreement with the recommendations, whereas compliance implies patient passivity.” (Brown & Bussell, 2011, p. 305). So, for the duration of the paper I will refer to “non – compliance” as “non-adherence
I will begin with the article, “Medication Adherence: A Call for Action”. In the article explores the relationship between non-adherence and prescribed medications.
The article theoretical definition of non – adherence is as follows,
Medication adherence refers to the extent to which patients follow provider recommendations about day-to-day treatment with respect to the timing, dosage, and frequency. It may be defined as “the extent to which a patient act in accordance with the prescribed interval, and dose of a dosing regimen.”. (Bosworth et al., 2011, p.
(Breaux-Shropshire, Brown, Pryor, & Maples, 2012)
This article explored the correlation self-monitoring of blood pressure, medication adherence, self-efficacy, stage of change, and blood pressure control among municipal workers with access to healthcare. (Breaux-Shropshire, Brown, Pryor, & Maples, 2012) The article was not able to find a correlation with the indicators and blood pressure control in the studied population (Breaux-Shropshire et al., 2012).
This article, “Improving Medication Adherence: Moving from Intention and Motivation to a Personal Systems Approach” various approached to increasing medication compliance in the elderly.
The article provide that the theoretical definition of medication compliance is, “a complex group of behaviors, including obtaining medications from a pharmacy, administering the correct drug and dose at the correct time as prescribed, and monitoring for intended and unintended effects”. (Russell, Ruppar, & Matteson, 2011, p.