What is compliance?
Drug regimen compliance is defined as the degree of correspondence between actual dosing history and the prescribed regimen. In other words that a patient follows his/her correct prescribed drug dose at a defined time, and that the patient will continue in doing so for the whole period of treatment.
It is unrealistic to expect compliance close to 100 per cent, as patients often choose a dosing time which fits into their daily routine, and at times simply forget to take the medication.
WHO Report
The WHO (World Health Organization's) report on adherence to long-term treatments published in 2003 showed that approximately half of the medicines prescribed in the treatment of chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes and mental disorders) are not taken, which is costly on a personal, economical and societal level.
Meanwhile studies carried out in the United States reveal non-compliance costs billions of dollars each year in terms of re-hospitalization, complications, disease progressions and even death.