Non-compliance to doctors’ advices among patients suffering from various diseases: Patients’ perspectives:A neglected issue

Background: an acknowledgement of the patient’s perspectives about compliance towards doctors’ advices is critical in ensuring better results of medical consultation. the compliance to therapies is a primary determinant of treatment success. the authors found a serious dearth of research on this issue. aim: the aim of the study was to determine the frequency & determinants of non-compliance towards doctors’ advices among study subjects. method: the current community based descriptive cross sectional study was conducted on 230 subjects suffering from various illnesses. the patients were enrolled using convenience sampling. the data was collected on pre-structured performa. the data comprises of questions regarding patients compliance to doctor advises,that may be preventive,promotive and therapeutic care. results: the mean age of respondents was 36.6 ± 7.4 years. the overall compliance to doctors’ advice was seen among 31.2% subjects. compliance to treatment advice was 35.8 %; while towards health promotive advices was 29.5% & towards preventive advices against diseases was 28.4 percent. seventy three percent of the total compliance was seento general practitionersin contrast to consultants i.e. 26.4%. significant association was seen between compliance & older age (p=0.02),non-infectious diseases (p=0.04),severity of disease (p=0.01),oral route of administration (p=0.00) & shorter duration of disease (p=0.00). the results of association of compliance with gender however remained statistically insignificant. conclusion: the study indicated that non-compliance towards doctors’ advices is a big public health issue & it should be taken as a hidden risk factor for diseases. the compliance towardsdoctor’sadvice was more prevalent for non-communicable diseases compared to communicable diseases. additionally,fear of side effects and high cost of medicine were two major reasons for treatment non-compliance. © 2017,bangladesh society of medicine. all rights reserved.