Meta-analysis of correlates of diabetes patients' compliance with prescribed medications.

This study quantitatively integrated the results of independent research papers containing correlates of objectively measured diabetes patients' compliance with prescribed medications. A total of 183 correlations were extracted from 26 studies. Separate meta-analytic syntheses were conducted to calculate average correlations for different subsets of studies, each of which represented homogeneous results. In general, emotional stability, internal and external motivations, perceived benefit, and supportive structure were positively associated with patients' compliance; perceived barriers and negative social environment were correlated with poor compliance. The directions of relationships of knowledge and age with compliance varied, depending on other study characteristics.