Glycemic control among patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus: in relation to medication adherence and life style

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder in which prevalence has been increasing steadily all over the world. Lifestyle management is a fundamental aspect of diabetes care and it includes nutrition, physical activity, smoking cessation, and psychosocial care. Good glycaemic control among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients involves interplay of self-management measures including physical activity and diet, in addition to medication adherence. One of the major contributing factors is poor medication adherence in type 2 diabetes mellitus which is well documented to be very common and is associated with inadequate glycemic control; increased morbidity and mortality; and increased costs of outpatient care, emergency room visits, hospitalization, and managing complications of diabetes. Observational cross sectional study, conducted at different major health care facilities in northern Jordan, recruited more than 300 adult patients who had been on the same antidiabetic treatment regimen for a minimum of 3 months. Patients’ data, physical measurements, medications and disease history, dietary carbohydrates and lipids intake data were obtained using pre-validated questionnaires. Fasting blood samples were collected and assessed for HbA1c. A total of 300 type2 diabetes mellitus patients were enrolled in this study, 63.7% of them were females and 36.3 % were males. The average age of patients was 60.1 years. About 52 (17.3%) of them were smokers, most of them were males (30%). Medication adherence showed that more than two-thirds (69.4%) of the study samples were highly adherent to their medication. Medication adherence was associated significantly with HbA1c level. Only 41.4% of the patients had diet counseling and 58.6% followed a diet plan, both of them were none significantly associated with HbA1c level. Glycemic control in type2 diabetes mellitus is not just a matter of proper medications use and dosages, but other factors may contribute to poor glycemic control.