Patient noncompliance: Can theories of motivation and principles of social influence be the solution?

Abstract

The problem of patient noncompliance has been a long-standing impediment and negatively impacting individual’s engagement in positive health behaviors. On a large scale, as a collective problem, this results in overall poor health outcomes in the United States. Research has shown that certain theories and concepts of motivation and persuasion, specifically the areas of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and principles of social influence, can have a positive impact on influencing individual behavior. This piece of work will discuss research and draw attention to various studies that demonstrate positive outcomes of these conceptions and have resulted in success when applied within various environments. Suggestions and recommendations that reflect central features of these concepts and theories will be presented as potential solutions for the problem of patient noncompliance in the healthcare environment; with the possibility of testing their effectiveness in future research efforts.