OBJECTIVES: Non-adherence to prescription medication has a significant impact on a patient’s health; often causing poorer health outcomes, preventable mortality and unnecessary utilization of healthcare services. Previous literature has been inconsistent as to what factors affect a patients’ adherence to prescription medication. Time preference, the extent that individuals are willing to discount future benefits for immediate benefits, has recently been acknowledged as a framework to understand patient behavior, however, the relationship between time preference and medication adherence is not widely understood. This study aims to summarize the existing literature on the association between time preference and medication adherence. METHODS: A literature search was conducted on Medline, PsycInfo, PubMed and CINAHL from January 2000 to 2015 using the keywords “time preference”, “patient compliance”, “medication adherence” and “non-adherence”. Studies that did not include medication adherence, lacked empirical data on time preference or assessed time preference with addictive behaviors (e.g. smoking) were excluded.  A table summarized results, including the publication year, author, study design, source and findings. RESULTS: A total of 53 articles were identified and nine studies were retained. Only three studies directly investigated the relationship between time preference and medication adherence. Of those, studies in 2001 examined adherence to hypertension medication in 195 older adults and adherence to cholesterol lowering medication in 169 adults.  Findings revealed weak to no association between time preference and medication adherence. Conversely, a 2013 study reported time preference as a significant predictor of medication adherence to asthma control medications for 47 patients with persistent asthma. CONCLUSIONS: Taking into account the extent to which patients will worry about adverse future outcomes, this review identified very few studies addressing the objective.  More empirical research must be conducted before any conclusion can be made in regard to the impact of a patients’ time preference on their medication adherence behaviors.