The impact of patient compliance/adherence on disease management is well known. In order to improve compliance with medication regimens healthcare providers have counted pills, evaluated re-fill patterns, developed electronic devices, used questionnaires to identify problem areas, yet compliance remains a significant barrier to the effectiveness of medication regimens. OBJECTIVE: Was to evaluate whether a person s beliefs regarding where control over his health lies impacts his level of compliance. METHOD: Data were collected on 460 DVA hyperlipidemia patients in a multisite DVA pharmaceutical care study. Patients were given Form C of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC). Form C is an 18 item general purpose, condition-specific locus of control scale consisting of 3 sub-scales, internal/external control, chance and powerful others. Patients were also given the Moriski Compliance Questionnaire at visits 1, 5 and 7, and re-fill patterns were evaluated as measures of compliance. RESULTS: Form C explains 16.1% of the variance in compliance (R = 0.161; p < .05). The internal/external control subscale R = 0.017; p > .05; the chance subscale R = 0.025; p > .05; and the powerful other subscale R = 0.155; p > .001. CONCLUSION: It is not surprising that the chance subscale played little or no role in explaining the variance in compliance, however we did expect the internal/external control subscale to explain part of the variance. This leads us to question whether the empowerment of patients improves compliance. Certainly, the impact of the powerful others subscale suggests the opposite to be the case. Patients with a high level of powerful other control were more likely to be compliant.