Medication Adherence Assessment Among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Treated Polytherapy in Indonesian Community Health Center: A Cross Sectional-Study.

BACKGROUND

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic disease where most of the patients usually need polytherapy. This could affect their medication adherence (MA). However, other complex factors may also associate with MA, which are important to identify.

AIM

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the MA of patients with T2DM who received polytherapy and to identify other factors that can affect the MA.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study conducted in seven community health centers in Jakarta with HbA representing their MA level. Poor controlled blood glucose with Hemoglobin A (HbA) of ≥7% is indicated to have low MA. All characteristics were collected to identify factors that are potentially associated with low MA. The univariate analysis tests were used to analyze factors that potentially associate with low MA. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed in the factors to find their relationship with low MA.

RESULTS

The study obtained 143 patients with a female dominance (67.8%) and mean ± standard deviation (SD) age of 59.53 ± 9.251 years. Approximately 75.5% of the patients had low MA (HbA ≥ 7). Univariate analysis found that duration of T2DM significantly ( = 0.047) related to MA, where patients with T2DM of less than or equal to 5 years tended to have low MA. Logistic regression showed that patients with T2DM less than or equal to 5 years ( = 0.015, odds ratio = 1.206, 95% confidence interval = 1.216-8.014) were associated with low MA.

CONCLUSION

Patients with the duration of T2DM less than or equal to 5 years surprisingly were susceptible to have low MA. Low MA was not affected by polytherapy.