Causes of nonadherence to treatment in people with myocardial infarction: Content analysis

Nonadherence with the medication regimen in patients with heart disease can lead to treatment failure. The purpose of this study was to identify the causes of nonadherence in people with myocardial infarction.

This study is a qualitative conventional content analysis. Data were collected through semistructured interviews. Thirteen individual interviews and a focus group were conducted with nurses, patients, and doctors. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis.

Four main themes were identified, which are organizational-managerial causes and factors (drug-related problems, educational system-related problems, weak performance of hospitals, and problems related to insurance companies); sociocultural causes and factors (factors related to cultural problems and factors related to social problems); causes and factors related to care providers (skill problems of care providers and functional problems of care providers); and causes and factors associated with caregivers (factors related to social characteristics of the patient, factors related to patient characteristics, and factors related to the patient's belief).

Many individual and organizational factors affect nonadherence, which can be reduced by fundamental changes.