Teaching medical students about treatment compliance

Poor patient compliance is common in clinical practice but difficult to demonstrate to medical students in a convincing manner. To accomplish this, the authors asked medical students who preregistered for a conference on patient compliance to adopt the role of "patient" and to take "medication" (Vitamin C) for one week, to observe certain dietary restrictions, and to complete an attitude and health beliefs questionnaire. The educational impact was intensified by making prior predictions about outcome which were almost exactly confirmed. The predictions concerned failure to fill the prescription, extent and type of noncompliance, and significant differences in attitudes between compliant and noncompliant students. The attitudes of the students resembled those of noncompliant patients asked to take medication for nonsymptomatic disorders (such as hypertension). Those students who participated in the drug-taking experience rated the educational impact of the conference more highly than did those students who attended the conference but did not take part in the drug project.