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.