Physician-Patient Agreement on Symptoms as a Predictor of Retention in Outpatient Care

The results of our study demonstrate the importance of symptom perception and medication in understanding which patients are likely to drop out of treatment. In situations where physician and patient agree about the symptoms, or where the patient perceives the symptoms to be more frequent than the physician does, prescribing medications reduces the dropout risk. However, in cases where the physician considers the symptoms to be more frequent than the patient does, the fact that medication is prescribed has no impact on dropout risk.