Adherence to diabetes regimens: empirical status and clinical applications.

Adherence to diabetes treatment regimens has proved to be a conceptual and empirical enigma. Consequently, reliable and valid applications to the clinical practice of diabetes care and education have been wanting. Rates of nonadherence are staggeringly high, regardless of the methodology employed, and verification of self-reports is complicated by social desirability to appear compliant. Low intertask correlations further complicate our understanding of adherence-metabolic control relationships. Studies relating to the Health Belief Model, social learning theory, and the psychology of interpersonal relationships that have sought to identify determinants of adherence behaviors have specific relevance to the clinical practice of diabetes education.