What factors predict adherence - Essay Example

Factors that predict adherence Affiliate Factors that predict adherence Adherence is one of the most strategies in health and medical fields that reduce the cost of medication and improve the quality of health care. Adherence is defined as the extent of peoples willingness and ability to comply with health and medical advice. People should consider some factors in order to gain maximum benefit from adherence. The health or medication information must be valid and patients should carefully follow instructions and advices.

Failure to comply with given prescriptions may lead serious health problems.There are several prevailing factors that predict adherence. Major factors include environmental factors, personal characteristics, health beliefs and socioecological factors. According to Brannon et al. (2013), severity of the disease suffered by the patient predicts the adherence. People with severe and life-threatening health problems are highly motivated to follow health and medical advices that protect or reduce the outcomes of the problems.

Some people suggest that patients perception of the disease severity drives them to adhere. On the other hand, people suffering from less severe and less harmful illness tend to be reluctant in adherence.Treatment characteristics are the prevailing factors that predict the adherence in health and medical issues. Treatment characteristics include side effects of specific medication and treatment complexity. Brannon et al. (2013) states that patients mainly fail to adhere to certain medication due to the presence of unpleasant medication side effects.

People suffering from severe side effects tend to drop out of a treatment schedule or program, as opposed to those experiencing less severe side effects. Treatment complexity predicts the level of adherence. Treatment programs comprising of a large number of doses are so demanding, and patients find them complex to follow. Consequently, these patients end up failing to adhere with medical advices prescribed for the medication. In addition, medication program involving a wide range of medications has a higher likelihood of being abandoned by patients causing non-adherence.

Personal factors also predict the adherence of people to certain prescriptions. Studies reveal that personal factors such as age, gender, emotions, beliefs and personality patterns determine the level of adherence. Age and adherence relationship is difficult to assess since adherence among young children depends on their parents or guardians and not themselves. However, as children grow and develop, they tend to be more responsible, thus more adherence. Older people are subjected to difficult situations such as poor health and memory loss that hinder them from adhering to certain prescriptions.

Young and energetic people tend to follow prescriptions and medical programs better than the old people since they are informed, active, understanding and healthy (Cognizant, 2013).Adherence to men and women has been found to be almost equal in many cases. However, there are differences in some cases. For instance, women tend to have less adherence in taking lower cholesterol medications than men (Brannon et al., 2013). Personality patterns have fewer effects on the level of adherence. In addition, adherence varies from one prescription to another.

For this reason, adherence is more depend on the situation and condition of the patient rather than personality patterns. However, smokers have been viewed to have less adherence as compared to non-smokers in similar conditions or health programs. Emotional factors are also considered as key factors that predict adherence. People suffering from emotional problems and stress may experience difficulties in adhering with certain advices. The higher the emotional problems, the lower the adherence rate among people.

Environmental factors determine and predict adherence to a large number of people. The major environmental factors include social support, cultural and religious norms and economic factors. First, socioeconomic factors like income and education influence adherence significantly. People with a greater level education and income are more likely to adhere to prescriptions than those with less income and education. Secondly, cultural norms determine whether people adhere to treatment and health prescriptions or not.

For instance, Catholic followers led to be less adherence to contraceptives than other people to their negative norms on contraceptives. Lastly, the support that a person receives from family members, friends and partners determine the level of adherence. People who experience isolation from others have a higher likelihood to be non-adherence compared to those who receive social support (Cognizant, 2013).In conclusion, adherence is dependent on key factors such as personal factors, treatment conditions, environmental factors, socioeconomic factors and severity of illness.

As a result, careful assessment and consideration of these factors should be carried out to people enrolled in certain treatment or medication programs.ReferencesBrannon L., Feist J. & Updegraff J. (2013). Health Psychology: An Introduction to Behavior and Health. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=qSIXAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=Wh at+factors+predict+adherence%3F&source=bl&ots=Thh7e8zmfK&sig=q- HNsvzl7O7bc3pQR71PnbreZnE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SF7HVISHMMm57gamwYH4CA& redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=What%20factors%20predict%20adherence%3F&f=false Cognizant (2013).

Predicting Patient Adherence: Why and How. Retrieved from http://www.cognizant.com/InsightsWhitepapers/Predicting-Patient-Adherence-Why-and- How.pdf