Publications

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a metabolic illness that causes excessive blood sugar levels as a resultof either impaired pancreatic insulin production, insulin resistance, or both. People withdiabetes mellitus die prematurely, and DM is a global burden. Adherence to drug regimens isessential in the management of diabetes mellitus, in addition to lifestyle changes. However,patients with diabetes are more likely not to take their medications as prescribed, and poormedication compliance jeopardizes patient safety and treatment efficacy, increasing mortalityand morbidity. This study aimed to determine oral diabetes medication adherence and itsassociated factors among type two diabetes patients (T2DM) at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital.An institutional-based cross-sectional study of 136 T2DM patients was undertaken at JinjaRegional Referral Hospital in Jinja district. A convenience sampling technique was used torecruit participants, and the research was carried out from April 2022 to October 2022. TheMorisky Medication Adherence Scale was used to assess medication adherence. STATA version15.1 was used to analyze the data. To discover independent determinants of T2DM adherence,logistic regressions were used. To declare statistical significance, a P-value of less than 0.05was employed. This study enrolled 136 type 2 diabetes patients, with a response rate of 100%.Overall, 58.33% of T2DM patients showed good medication adherence. T2DM patients who tookboth oral and injectable anti-diabetic medications (AOR = 1.98, 95% CI: 1.16-3.39), received theprescribed anti-diabetic medication from the hospital (AOR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.32-0.80), had theirown glucometer at home (AOR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.16-0.54), and had good diabetes-relatedknowledge were found to be more adherent to oral antidiabetic medication. At Jinja RegionalReferral Hospital, there is a low prevalence of oral anti-diabetic drug adherence among patientswith T2DM. Significant independent predictors of anti-diabetic treatment adherence includedthe type of medication that T2DM patients were taking, the ability of patients to receive theirprescriptions from the hospital, having a glucometer at home for glucose monitoring, andhaving sound knowledge of diabetes. Patients should therefore receive more education on the importance of medication adherence, and as well be encouraged to purchase personalglucometers.