Self-regulation perspectives attempt to integrate environmental variables and the cognitive responses
of individuals to health threats into the self-regulatory model (61,62). The essence of the model pertains
to the central importance of the cognitive conceptualization of a patient (or a patient-to-be (63) of a
health threat or an illness. Illness representations (the ideas patients have about the diseases they suffer)
and coping are seen as mediating between the health threat and the action taken. Recent empirical
studies seem to lend support to the importance of illness cognitions in predicting adherence (64–66).
Patients create personal representations of health threats and models of the illness and its treatment,
and it is these that guide their decision-making and behaviour.Thus, adherence requires an appropriate
model and the belief that one can manage one’s own environment and behaviour, specific coping skills,
and a belief that the issue requires one’s attention and the modification of one’s behaviour.