Predictors of adherence to diabetes medicationss: multicentre study from the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus disease (DM) is growing rapidly across the world, however the rate of increment is considerably high in Arab countries, which increases in them the risks of developing microvascular (e.g., retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy) and macrovascular diseases (e.g., cardiovascular diseases and cerebrovascular disease). Better Adherence to diabetes medications play important role in achieving better health outcomes and preventing the complications of the disease. However, there are different factors that might affect the adherences. The aim of the study was to evaluate the predicators of the level of adherence of type 2 DM patients in the Eastern Province, KSA. Methodology: 376 participants were randomly selected from two hospitals in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, and adherence towards anti-diabetic drugs was measured using the General Medication Adherence Scale (GMAS). Results: The participants included equal proportion of males and females, 79% with older than 50 years, 46% with an education of primary school or lower, and 43% with monthly income of 5000 SAR or lower. Among the participants, 22% did not have any diabetes related complications, 38% were on oral medication as well as insulin injection for diabetes and 10% had history of hospitalisation due to diabetes. Importantly, 37% (138/376) of participants were reported partial or lower adherence level, and only 42% (160/376) of participants reported high level of adherence. The degree of adherence was also lower among participants had Random blood glucose level (RBG) of 200 mg/dl or more compared to participants with RBG of 200 mg/dl or lower (p-value<0.001) (AU)