Conclusion
A better understanding of patients’ adherence to treatment is important to maximize the benefit of healthcare provided to patients, in order to improve health related outcomes and reduce costs. The results of this SR show that a large number of studies show the effects and associations of several factors and determinants on adherence to treatment. This study analysed the reported effects of factors related to the patient’s characteristics and behaviours, the characteristics of the condition and its treatment, as well as characteristics of the healthcare system and socioeconomic environment. Despite this overview of available data on the scientific literature presented in this document, it is highly relevant to conduct more scientific research using high quality standards (e.g., randomized controlled trials, across disease areas, longitudinal) in patient adherence to maximize the benefit of healthcare provision for patients, which is a key factor for various subsequent health outcomes.
Ethics approval and consent to participate: not applicable.
Consent for publication : not applicable.
Availability of data and materials : not applicable.
Competing interests: FF, ARUW, KvH, ARL, JIC, ET, AM, JBC, BM, PA, GF, LM, JC, RS, EC, EK, NB, GB, KG, KS, LDR, FLV have no conflict of, or competing, interest.
Funding: We acknowledge funding by the IMI funded BEAMER project, contract 101034369. IMI is funded by the European Union Horizon 2020, EFPIA and associated partners – Link2Trials.
Authors’ contributions : FF, ARUW, KvH and FLV have conducted the systematic review and analyzed the majority of the papers. All authors have analyzed part of the articles included in the SR, and have read and approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements : not applicable.
Data availability statement: The current study does not contain any personal or individual data.