{"id":6889,"date":"2026-01-13T08:42:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediconomics.com\/?post_type=glossary&p=6889"},"modified":"2026-07-13T19:08:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:08:46","slug":"adherence","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/mediconomics.com\/en\/glossar\/adherence\/","title":{"rendered":"Adherence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adherence describes the extent to which a patient’s behaviour \u2013 whether taking medication, following a diet, or implementing lifestyle changes \u2013 matches the recommendations agreed jointly with the physician. In the context of clinical trials, adherence is a decisive factor for the validity of trial results, since inadequate treatment compliance can reduce statistical power and considerably complicate the interpretation of efficacy.
For CROs, ensuring high adherence represents a central operational challenge. Low treatment compliance can cause genuinely effective medicines to fail in the analysis (Type II error). Strategies to promote adherence are therefore already implemented at the study design stage, such as simplifying the dosing regimen, intensive patient education, and the selection of motivated investigational sites. Monitoring here often includes checking ‘drug accountability’ in order to identify discrepancies between dispensed and returned medication at an early stage.
Modern approaches increasingly use digital technologies to monitor and promote adherence in real time. Systems such as ePRO apps with reminder functions, electronic pill dispensers, or wearables enable seamless documentation of treatment compliance. These data are relevant not only for clinical safety but also feed into the assessment of usability and patient acceptance, which is of growing importance to regulatory authorities and payers.<\/p>\n

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Adherence describes the extent to which a patient’s behaviour \u2013 whether taking medication, following a diet, or implementing lifestyle changes \u2013 matches the recommendations agreed jointly with the physician. In the context of clinical trials, adherence is a decisive factor for the validity of trial results, since inadequate treatment compliance can reduce statistical power and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"glossary-cat":[],"class_list":["post-6889","glossary","type-glossary","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"related_terms":"","external_url":"","internal_reference_id":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediconomics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/6889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediconomics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediconomics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/glossary"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediconomics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediconomics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/6889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6890,"href":"https:\/\/mediconomics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/6889\/revisions\/6890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediconomics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"glossary-cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediconomics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary-cat?post=6889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}