Optimisme et pessimisme comparatifs : quelles implications pour l'observance thérapeutique chez les personnes âgées ?

Therapeutic compliance is the degree to which the patient observes medical recommendations or prescriptions. Compliance in elderly is considered to be an important public health issue, and it is known to be influenced by many factors. One of these factors is communication by the health care provider. This aim of this paper was to show how far the patient's perception of his own future as compared to that of others (i.e. comparative optimism and comparative pessimism) influence his compliance. We will show in what way this dimension can be taken into account by the health care provider in order to (1) improve his interaction with the patient, and (2) improve the compliance of the patient.