Medication Adherence and Related Factors in Patients with Epilepsy: A Descriptive-Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: One of the major health issues, especially in patients with chronic diseases, is medication adherence. Patients with epilepsy face various psychosocial pressures due to non-adherence to medication and the presence of unpredictable convulsive attacks. It seems that it is important to investigate drug compliance and identify factors related to it in these patients to adopt treatment and care plans. Therefore, this study was designed and implemented to investigate drug compliance and its related factors in patients with epilepsy in Namazi Hospital (Shiraz, Iran) in 2022. Methods: The present study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. It included 320 patients with epilepsy. The data were collected using demographic information and a medication adherence questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS software.Results: The medication compliance scale scores of the participants were 4.31±1.98. There was a statistically significant relationship between sex (P=0.040), education level (P=0.016), marital status (P=0.033), underlying disease history (P=0.039), and medication adherence scale score.Conclusion: Drug compliance in patients with epilepsy was at a low level. Therefore, it is recommended that health professionals and caregivers adopt educational and care methods appropriate to the factors affecting drug compliance, as well as evaluate effective approaches to improve the level of drug compliance in patients with epilepsy.