rational/non-adherence

• non-adherence is when a patient doesnt follow the advice of a health professional
• rational non-adherence is where the patient feels as if there is justification for them not following medical advice
• they may perform a cost benefit analysis and find the costs of giving up are more than the benefits
• financial barriers may be a reason for non-adherence such as the cost of treatment, time off of work
• a doctor centred approach is more likely to lead to nonadherence than a patient centred approach
• research has shown that the costs such as withdrawal symptoms are justifications for not adhering and this can then suggest it may be an important factor for an individual.
• it could be that learned helplessness is a more important reason why a person may not adhere to medical advice
• cons - there is little concrete evidence of a link between learned helplessness and unhealthy behaviours
• cons - until a person deals with the root cause of their stress, they will not adhere to medical advice as the treatment given may cause more stress such as counselling
• cons - difficult to establish one single cause of non-adherence as there are likely to be many factors which can impact whether a person is to adhere or not