Abstract

ORTEGA CERDA, José Juan; SANCHEZ HERRERA, Diana; RODRIGUEZ MIRANDA, Óscar Adrián  and  ORTEGA LEGASPI, Juan Manuel. Therapeutic adherence: a health care problem. Acta méd. Grupo Ángeles [online]. 2018, vol.16, n.3, pp.226-232. ISSN 1870-7203.

It is widely known that the lack of adherence to treatment is the main cause of not obtaining all the benefits that medicines can provide to patients, and yet, in daily clinical practice, we continue not to integrate this fact as the first cause of therapeutic failure, often resorting to the intensification of treatments or unnecessary tests that can put the patient at risk. The lack of therapeutic adherence is a problem of great impact worldwide, predominating mainly in patients with chronic diseases, in which long term adherence is little more than 50%, and even lower in developing countries. As a consequence, there are higher rates of hospitalization, increased health costs and therapeutic failures, among others. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are five factors involved in adherence: socioeconomic, treatment-related, patient-related, disease-related and health equipment-related. Although several plans have been described to improve adherence, with the evidence available so far, a specific strategies that is effective and useful in all cases can’t be recommended at this time.

Keywords : Therapeutic adherence; adherence to treatment; treatment of chronic diseases.

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