Factors Affecting Medication Non Adherence in Type 2 Sudanese Diabetic Patients

Abstract

Background: Medications non-adherence is responsible for treatment failure and a reason of higher cost of medical care. It had been proved that, in general, diabetic patients are non-adherent to their treatment and only a small number of them were found to be adhering with all aspects of diabetic care. Objectives: To assess and evaluate the most common factors associated with medications adherence among Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) patients attending Ribat University Hospital Diabetic Clinic (RUHDC) Khartoum state, Sudan. Methods: Single Centre Descriptive cross sectional hospital based study was carried out among 351 patients using structured questionnaire and patients cards. Results: A total of 351 patients were recruited in the study; 65.8% were females. About 64.4% were on oral medications and 35.6% on insulin. Adherence to medications among total Type 2 DM patients was 45%. Main barriers to medication adherence were drugs unavailability (34.3%) and forgetfulness (30.7%). Medications knowledge was 41.2% for patients on oral medications and 38.4% for insulin users. Conclusion: Adherence to anti-diabetic drugs in this study was found to be sub-optimal but considered reasonable in comparison with that reported by many African countries. Poor medications knowledge, drug brand unavailability and forgetfulness were the main reasons for medications non adherence. Family support, improving healthcare system and changing patents’ behavior will be needed to improve medications adherence.