title: Compliance and phototherapy.
abstract: When beginning a phototherapy regimen for a patient, consideration of compliance rates is important. Compliance to phototherapy can be affected by several factors, including the grade of discomfort and side effects from therapy, failure of previous therapies, accessibility and convenience to reach the phototherapy center, grade of improvement during phototherapy, patient relief due to light therapy, and rapport with staff. Understanding how these factors can affect patient adherence can allow for phototherapy regimens to be tailored in a manner that optimizes health outcomes and allows for proper patient selection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brownell
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine, Chicago, IL. Electronic address: toukasm@uic.edu.
authors.forename: Maria M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Tsoukas
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010349:Patient Compliance; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D018579:Patient Selection; D010789:Phototherapy / Q000379:methods; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000532:radiotherapy*