title: Compliance and quality of life: confessions of a difficult patient.
abstract: Noncompliance has been treated as a deviant behavior. This paper argues that nonadherence is more complex and is the expression of independence and a judgment about the utility of any medical, surgical, or rehabilitation intervention. The quality of one's life is a personally defined concept and so too are the reasons why a patient refuses to do what is recommended. Appropriate health behavior should be thought of as a behavior that meets the person's goals and achieves some mutually definable outcome.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance; D011788:Quality of Life