Noncompliance in hospitalized patients with AIDS

Compliance with treatment is an important concern in the management of patients with a wide array of medical disorders. A chart review of 20 hospitalized AIDS patients at one medical center was done to determine the degree of noncompliance in this extremely ill population. Ninety percent of AIDS patients declined some procedure or treatment, leading to a mean refusal rate of 19.7 refusals per 100 hospital days. Compared to a control population of male leukemics, the mean rate of refusal per hospital day among AIDS patients was over four times greater (p less than 0.05, Student's t-test, two-tailed). Reasons for noncompliance among hospitalized AIDS patients deserve further study.