An Evaluation of Factors Affecting Compliance in Healthcare

Ann Ryan Alexander

Healthcare compliance is not a new concept. For as long as medicines and healthcare practices have been prescribed, people have not been compliant. For the patient, there are many reasons why this could be, including adverse effects to medications, transportation struggles, financial issues, family struggles, occupational struggles. For the healthcare workers, it creates an unintentional bias. Healthcare providers see the noncompliance, whether it be not sticking to a medication regime, not showing up to appointments or procedures, denying certain procurements and automatically assume that the patient doesn’t care about their health. They don’t stop to consider the extenuating circumstances. There are many elements that factor into noncompliance, things like socioeconomic status, and education levels, health beliefs, and support systems, healthcare providers and comorbidities. One place where noncompliance is prevalent and can be extremely harmful is diabetes care. Diabetes is a complex disease that affects your entire body. It requires continuous monitoring of blood sugars, careful dosing of medications including insulin, a multitude of doctor’s appointments and much more. For those with diabetes, this is a lot more than they expected and the burnout can be intense. Healthcare compliance and factors that prevent patients from getting the best care possible is something that should be studied in order for patients to be able to receive the best care possible. By studying the reasons why people are noncompliant, we can begin to take steps to help them overcome these challenges and better their own health.

• Ann Ryan Alexander is a junior nursing major with a minor in public health. She is a part of the Honors College and the Lander University Student Nurses Association. In Spring 2024, she completed an internship with the Self-Regional Diabetic Education Center, which inspired this presentation.