Medication compliance: the patient's perspective.

There has been increasing interest in using outcomes-based research to evaluate quality of care. Compliance with prescribed regimens is an intermediate outcome measure that presumes that a positive health outcome will follow, which is why clinicians and researchers are interested in compliance. Patients, however, use a variety of criteria to determine the value of medication. They may place equal or greater value on personal and often competing nonclinical outcomes. A small but growing literature explores the influence of physical, economic, psychological, and social factors that influence medication use behavior. This literature supports the notion that patients evaluate medication based not only on its clinical effectiveness, but also how it affects all aspects of their lives. Outcomes research on compliance with prescribed medicine should recognize the outcomes valued from the patient's perspective.