Adherence to Treatment in Patients with Chronic Diseases: From Alertness to Persistence

BACKGROUND: Adherence to treatment is a process that begins with alertness about the disease and has to end with staying in treatment. It is a concern to all health care disciplines. The aim of this study was to explore the experience of adherence to treatment patients with chronic diseases. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted during a period of 6 months in Golestan province in Iran in 2017. In-depth semi-structured interviews were done with a purposive sample of 15 patients with chronic disease (i.e. Chronic renal failure (CRF), Hypertension (HTN), Multiple sclerosis (MS) and Diabetes). Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis in MAXQDA Software. RESULTS: The analysis of the data in this study led to the development of ten subthemes and four themes emerged as follows: motivation, cohesion, commitment and empowerment which are necessary components for adherence to treatment in patients. “Moving from alertness to persistence” emerged as the main theme. CONCLUSION: The findings of the study offer helpful insights into the concept of adherence to treatment and its components for health care providers, which can be used to develop the best possible care plan and may help health care providers to support the patients to have an active role for following treatment rather than just doing it.