Abstract
Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic non-communicable disease that is associated with vascular complications. Treatment of diabetes complications are expensive and it is much more expensive than the treatment for the disease itself. However, most of these vascular complications can be prevented with good glycaemic control and to achieve this, compliance to medication is essential. Similar to most of the other chronic diseases, drug compliance has been poor among patients with diabetes. The objective of this study was to assess the level of drug compliance and the factors that influence the drug compliance among Sri Lankan patients with diabetes. Method: Three sets of patients were recruited from three different clinical settings, the diabetes clinic, the medical clinics and the general practitioner clinics in the community. Data were collected using an interviewer administered questionnaire. Results: There were 247 patients recruited for the study and majority were females (80.2%). The majority (79.4%) attended the clinics regularly. However, a good compliance to medication was seen in 38.4% of patients. The large number of tablets that they need to swallow, fear of side effects with long-term drug intake and unclear instructions are the main reasons for poor drug compliance among our patients. Conclusions: Similar to most of the previously done studies, drug compliance is poor among our patients with diabetes. However, the compliance can be improved by avoiding polypharmacy by using combined pills and with proper patient education regarding drug intake and the side-effects.
Highlights
Recommendations for health and medical advice [8]
In order to obtain a proper cross-section of the diabetes population, we recruited a total number of 247 diabetic patients, 104 managed in the diabetes clinic at NCTH and 92 patients who were managed in the medical clinics at NCTH, and 51 patients from the community
Good adherence to treatment was reported by 38.4% (n=95) of the patients and 61.6% [152] had poor compliance out of which, 7.2% (n=18) never adhered to treatment. 40.7 %( n=81) of the females had good compliance to treatment, whereas only 29.2% (n=14) of males had good compliance to treatment
Summary
Several factors determine the patient’s compliance to healthcare provider’s instructions and recommendations. These are categorized as patient-centered factors, therapy-related factors, healthcare system factors, social and economic factors, and disease factors. Patientcentered factors are demographic factors such as age, ethnicity, gender, education, and marital status Psychological factors such as patient’s beliefs, motivation and negative attitude towards therapy play an important role. This study was carried out to establish the degree of compliance to medication in diabetic patients in Sri Lankan clinic set up and the community, and to identify the major factors affect the compliance in our patients in order to see how the compliance can be improved in Sri Lankan community and the clinic set up
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