Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jul-Sep;11(3):45-49.

Adherence to oral hypoglycemic medication among patients with diabetes in Saudi Arabia

Nahid Osman Ahmed  1 , Salwa Abugalambo  1 , Ghadeer Hamad Almethen  2
Affiliations

Adherence to oral hypoglycemic medication among patients with diabetes in Saudi Arabia

Nahid Osman Ahmed et al. Int J Health Sci (Qassim). 2017 Jul-Sep.

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic progressive disease characterized by numerous health complications. Medication adherence is an important determinant of therapeutic outcome. The objective of this study was to assess hypoglycemic medication adherence.

Materials and methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional web-based study. The eight-item Morisky medication adherence scale was used to assess adherence.

Results: A convenience sample of 290 patients with diabetes was studied; of them, 10.7% had a high adherence, 34.5% had a medium adherence, and 54.8% had a low adherence level. Adherence score was a positively and significantly correlated with age (P < 0.05). Similar significant correlation was found between adherence level and gender (P < 0.05). However, adherence was not significantly associated with diabetes duration of disease (P > 0.05) and number of hypoglycemic medications (P >0.05).

Conclusion: The majority of patients with diabetes in this study had low adherence rate. The three main factors may contribute to non-adherence to medication are non-adherence to regular follow-up in diabetes clinic, non-adherence to healthy diet, and non-adherence to instruction to take medication.

Keywords: Adherence; Saudi Arabia; oral hypoglycemic.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ramphal R. Endocronolgy and methabolism. In: Fauci AS, Braunwald E, Kasper DL, editors. Harrison Principles of Internal Medicine. 17th ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Medical; 2008. pp. 949–56.
    1. International Diabetes Federation. IDF Diabetes Atlas. 7th ed. Brussels, Belgium: International Diabetes Federation; 2015. [Last accessed on 2016 Nov 23]. Available from: http://www.diabetesatlas.org .
    1. Wild S, Roglic G, Green A, Sicree R, King H. Global prevalence of diabetes:Estimates for the year 2000 and projections for 2030. Diabetes Care. 2004;27:1047–53. - PubMed
    1. Maddigan SL, Feeny DH, Johnson JA. Health-related quality of life deficits associated with diabetes and comorbidities in a Canadian National Population Health Survey. Qual Life Res. 2005;14:1311–20. - PubMed
    1. Diabetes. World Health Organization. [Last cited on 2016 Mar 30]. Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs312/en .

LinkOut - more resources