Accountability: a missing construct in models of adherence behavior and in clinical practice

Piano lessons, weekly laboratory meetings, and visits to health care providers have in common an accountability that encourages people to follow a specified course of action. The accountability inherent in the social interaction between a patient and a health care provider affects patients' motivation to adhere to treatment. Nevertheless, accountability is a concept not found in adherence models, and is rarely employed in typical medical practice, where patients may be prescribed a treatment and not seen again until a return appointment 8-12 weeks later. The purpose of this paper is to describe the concept of accountability and to incorporate accountability into an existing adherence model framework. Based on the Self-Determination Theory, accountability can be considered in a spectrum from a paternalistic use of duress to comply with instructions (controlled accountability) to patients' autonomous internal desire to please a respected health care provider (autonomous accountability), the latter expected to best enhance long-term adherence behavior. Existing adherence models were reviewed with a panel of experts, and an accountability construct was incorporated into a modified version of Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory. Defining accountability and incorporating it into an adherence model will facilitate the development of measures of accountability as well as the testing and refinement of adherence interventions that make use of this critical determinant of human behavior.