Factors Affecting Adherence to Medications among Type2 Diabetic Patients Attending Primary Health Care Center in Cairo

Abstract Background Poor adherence to medications is a major public health problem. Non-adherence results in disease progression, reduced functional abilities, a lower quality of life, waste of medication and increase use of medical resources such as nursing homes, hospital visits and hospital admissions. Objective To measure the prevalence and factors affecting adherence to medications among T2DM patients attending primary health care center of Saraya El Quobba. To measure the agreement between MTA (Measure Treatment Adherence) and ARMS (Adherence to Refills and Medications Scale) questionnaires as a tool of measurement treatment adherence. Methods A Cross sectional study was carried out in family medicine center of Saraya El Qubba in Cairo on 130 participants who had been diagnosed T2DM at least3 months before. Patients with T1DM, Patients with known history of psychiatric illness or cognitive impairment, Patients with communication problems such as aphasia, severe hearing or visual impairment were excluded. Selection of participants was done through Systematic Random Sampling. Data about adherence was collected using structured questionnaires MTA (Measurement Treatment Adherence) and ARMS (Adherence to Refills and Medications Scale) questionnaires. Results 62.6% of our sample were females, 38.9% belonged to age group of 60-70 years, 71.8% were married, 29% had intermediate education, 61.8% were unemployed. The level of adherence among patients attending primary health centre of Saraya El Quobba was 65.6%. Many factors were found to affect medication adherence as regular monitoring of blood glucose level (76.7%), regular follow up visit (75.9%), presence of family support (20.6), monthly income (84.2%) and educational level. There was a statistically significant strong negative correlation between the 2 measurements scores (r=-0.8644, p < 0.001). Conclusion The level of adherence was high among the participants in the current study. Many factors were found to affect medication adherence as regular monitoring of blood glucose level, regular follow up visit, presence of family support, monthly income, both high and low educational level. Agreement between to questionnaires was found.