Factors related to adherence to a rehabilitation program

Abstract

Lack of completion of a rehabilitation program on the part of the patient is reflected in the loss of achievements. For this reason it is necessary to know the factors that can lead to loss of continuity in the reatment. The aims of this study are: to determine the factors involved in patients´ adherence to an integral rehabilitation program and to describe and analyze the reasons that patients had, to not follow the recommendations of an integral rehabilitation program. Materials and methods: a qualitative study of paradigmatic axial-coding analysis was conducted, based on 7 focus group including therapists, patients and adults, children, adolescents’ relatives. Results. Different groups interviewed showed a wide range of concepts related to rehabilitation. Both relatives and patients agreed on the lack of time and fatigue as the main difficulties to perform the activities recommended by the therapists. As for the therapists, there are differences with respect to the concepts about adherence since in some cases the definitions are closer to patients’ attendance and obedience than to a patient’s active participation. Conclusions. The results indicate that a program that aims to improve adherence among patients must have a biopsychosocial approach. Knowing the conditions associated with more or less adherence to the program will allow to improve the effectiveness of the interventions implying collaboration instructional follow-up. It will also allow to overcome the difficulties that may depend upon the therapeutic team, the rehabilitation program design or the institution itself.