Pharmacist-initiated interventional program to improve medication adherence of elderly patients with type 2 diabetic mellitus / Ali Saleh Alkhoshaiban

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among the elderly in Saudi Arabia, King Saud hospital, Unaizah city, has tremendously increased in the last decades. The increase is attributed to the lack of intervention measures to address patient’s health need. This study assessed the impact of the intervention programme to improve patient’s adherence among T2DM in Saudi Arabia. This was a prospective, randomized and interventional study conducted on T2DM Saudi Arabian patients and patients’ follow-up for eight months. A total of 102 volunteer elderly patients and nine volunteer outpatient pharmacists, who met the inclusion criteria were randomly selected to participate in this study. The training program was carried out for five days with a total of 10 contact hours to provide pharmacists with knowledge on medication therapy adherence and diabetic counselling for patients. Pre- and post-knowledge of pharmacists’ on T2DM were evaluated using Michigan Diabetic Knowledge test (MDKT) before and after training program. Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (MMAS-8) was used to evaluate the adherence of the elderly with T2DM. Fourteen items in Michigan Diabetes Knowledge Test (DKT) specifically for T2DM were used to evaluate the knowledge of the patients.