Living with Cystic Fibrosis: Adherence to Treatment

Adherence to treatment is an active and acceptable interaction between patient and therapist to achieve the desired therapeutic and preventive outcomes. The objective of this study is the overview of the aspects and factors affecting non-adherence and offering proper strategies in patients with cystic fibrosis. A database search for relevant articles related to adherence to treatment in cystic fibrosis, published from 2008 to 2015, was conducted using the key words of cystic fibrosis, adherence, treatment, children and parent. Three investigators reviewed 29 relevant articles. Cystic fibrosis is a multisystem fatal disease and its treatment process is costly and time consuming. However, adherence to treatment is lower than 50% even in industrial and developed societies. Many factors such as age, gender, education level of parents and children, attitudes and beliefs of parents and children about the disease, different treatment strategies, cultural differences, frequency of hospitalization, severity of the disease, location of treatment in hospital, home or clinic, stress of parents and children, social support and quality and quantity of health care system are effective in adherence to treatment. Dynamic and respectful communication between the patient and the therapist, introducing benefits of adherence and providing recommendations with the aim of increasing of the survival rate will motivate patient in hopeful manner and enable him/her to comply with costly and time-consuming treatment process. So, it is recommended to all health care professionals to be familiarized with the concept of adherence, identify the barriers and facilitators of adherence and adapt appropriate strategies to achieve better results.