Evaluation of Adherence to Oral Hypoglycemic Agent Prescription in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

BACKGROUND: Diabetes is a global health problem that has affected more than 400 million people worldwide. Adherence to treatment is considered to be one of the most important and deterministic factors in the treatment of diabetes. This study investigates medication adherence and factors affecting it in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: This crosssectional study investigated 136 patients with type 2 diabetes in 2018-2019. Data collection was done using a checklist that included information on personal characteristics, medication, and healthcare. The collected data were analyzed by statistical tests in SPSS 25 software. RESULTS: 79.4% of the patients adhered to prescribed medication. Medication adherence had no significant relationship with taking other drugs, fasting blood sugar (FBS), and the daily number of hypoglycemic tablets (p ˃ 0.05). However, adherence to medication was significantly associated with age, gender, income, hemoglobin A1c, medication period, and hypoglycemia (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Higher levels of adherence were` observed among females aged below 60 years, with higher income, a hemoglobin A1c level below 7%, a medication period of less than 10 years, and among patients without hypoglycemia. Regarding drug type, adherence levels were lower in people taking glibenclamide.