Patient Education, Patient Compliance, Patient Adherence/Satisfaction

Patient education is the process of providing information to patients and their careers that will help them change their health behaviors or improve their health condition. Physicians must increase patients' health literacy in order to promote patient education and engagement. The ability to seek, understand, and act on health information is characterized as health literacy. Adherence is defined as the patient's "active, voluntary, and collaborative participation in a mutually acceptable course of conduct to achieve a therapeutic result." Choice and mutuality in goal formulation, treatment planning, and regimen administration are implicit in the concept of adherence.