Assessment on the burden of drug-related problems among ambulatory patients with type 2 diabetes on follow-up at selected hospitals of Southwest Ethiopia

Background: The emergence ofdrug-related problems might contribute to poor control of blood glucose levels, increased health care costs and poor health-related quality of life. Hence, the present study was designed to assess the burden ofdrug-related problems among patients with type 2 diabetes on treatment follow-up at the selected hospitals in Southwest Ethiopia. Methods: Hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted on ambulatory type 2 diabetic patients on treatment follow-up at Mizan Tepi University Teaching Hospital and Gebretsedik Shawo General Hospital from November 2017 to September 2018. A pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire and data abstraction format were used to collect relevant information from patients and their medical records, respectively. Data were analyzed using STATA version 13.0 software. Result: This study included 260 patients, 251 (96.5%) of whom experienced at least one drugrelated problem. A total of 472 drug-related problems which accounted for an average of 1.82 ± 0.59 (mean ± SD) problems per patient was identified. The participants with one, two and more drug-related problems were accounted for 16.9%, 73.4% and 6.2% respectively. The common problems were related to the need for additional drug therapy (84.6%) for either lipid-lowering and/or antiplatelet effect, dose too low (anti-diabetic medication dose escalation was not optimal) (84.2%) and non-adherence to medication (31.2%). Adverse drug reaction (3.4%) was the least prevalent type ofthe identified problem. Conclusion: There was a high burden ofdrug-related problems among ambulatory type 2 diabetic patients on treatment follow-up. Hence, great emphasis should be given in improving the quality of their care.