Adherence to antidiabetic therapy among hospitalized patients with diabetes mellitus in Sungai Buloh Hospital / Nurul Nadia Zulrushdi

The prevalence of diabetic patients in Malaysia continuously increases from year to year. Many antidiabetic medications are prescribed in order to achieve optimum blood glucose level. Regardless of this, there is still many diabetic patients that had uncontrolled HbA l c readings. This study aims to determine the adherence levels of hospitalized diabetic patients in Sungai Buloh Hospital and to determine the association between patient's demographic and clinical data with adherence levels. There is two questionnaire which are l) Borang Saal Selidik and 2) Morisky Medications Adherence Scale - 8 items (MMAS-8). 490 patients from Sungai Buloh Hospital were interviewed. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0, using the descriptive statistic and non-parameter tests. The majority of patients in this study were male (56. l %), with the presence of comorbidities (84.7%), had HbAlc reading more than 7.5% (59.4%) and had less than two prescribed antidiabetic medications. Most of the patients were ranging from 60 to 69 years old (26. 7%), Malay ( 49.4%), had been diagnosed with diabetes more than 9 years (33.3%) and are on combination therapy (40.8%). There is no significant difference (p>0.05) between age, race and number of medications. There is a significant association (p<0.05) between adherence levels with gender, presence of comorbidities, durations of illness and HbAlc readings. 61.6% of the patients had low adherence level (score = < 6). This study leads to better understanding of adherence level among hospitalized patients. Patients counseling by the pharmacist are necessary for patients that have multiple admissions to hospital to increase adherence among hospitalized patients.