Adherence to Insulin Treatment and Glycaemic Control among Patients with Diabetes Attending Diabetic Clinic at Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza, Tanzania

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is still one of the utmost public health problems affecting over 537 million people worldwide. Tanzania is the leading country in Sub Saharan Africa for age – adjusted prevalence (20 – 79 years) of people living with diabetes, which was 12.3% in 2021. Insulin therapy is more commonly used in DM patients and good adherence to insulin therapy makes it easy for a diabetic individual to have good treatment outcomes. This research aims to assess adherence to insulin therapy and glycaemic control among patients with diabetes. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted through convenience selection of 150 diabetic patients at Bugando Medical Centre from 2nd April to 28th April, 2024. Data was collected using questionnaires. Data was entered and cleaned using Microsoft Excel then analysed using STATA version 15. Logistics regression was used to obtain how the predictor variables were associated with non- adherence to insulin therapy and glycaemic control. Results: Among 150 diabetic patients who were recruited into this study, the median age of the participants was 60[IQR: 47-67] years and most of the participants were female, 84(56.00%). Majority, 82.00% of the participants had low adherence to insulin therapy. Male gender and poor glycaemic control (p<0.05) were significantly associated with non-adherence to insulin therapy. Low adherence to insulin therapy had a significant association with poor glycaemic control (p<0.05) Conclusion: The findings from this study showed low level of adherence among the majority of the study participants. Male patients and those with poor glycaemic control had significant non-adherence to insulin therapy in this study. Patients with low adherence to insulin therapy were more likely to have poor glycaemic control.