Helping patients follow prescribed treatment: clinical applications.

Low adherence to prescribed medical regimens is a ubiquitous problem. Typical adherence rates are about 50% for medications and are much lower for lifestyle prescriptions and other more behaviorally demanding regimens. In addition, many patients with medical problems do not seek care or drop out of care prematurely. Although accurate measures of low adherence are lacking for many regimens, simple measures, such as directly asking patients and watching for appointment nonattendance and treatment nonresponse, will detect most problems. For short-term regimens (