AWARENESS OF DIABETICS ABOUT THE NEED TO ADHERE TO AND CONTROL TREATMENT

Background: Diabetes management depends on education, awareness, and practice. The primary aim of the current study is to investigate awareness and medication non-adherence by Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

Methods: The cross sectional study was carried out for a period of 12 months, this is because cross-sectional studies have a specific beginning and ending time. A specific population sample of about 125 patients would be used. Thus, the independent variables include aspects like age, gender, type or nature of diabetics, complexity of drug regiments among other variables. The dependent variable was adherence to medication. The cross-sectional approach allowed the researcher to analyze the different variables that lead to lack of adherence to medication among diabetic patients. The main of undertaking this cross-sectional study would be to describe and assess the characteristics of diabetic patients who do not adhere to medication.

Results: The study included 453 type 2 diabetic patients after exclusion of non-diabetic participants. Most of study participants were informed with diabetes since more than one year (n= 364, 80.4%). However, participants started using medications after a while of diagnosis. Most of them started since one year (n= 288, 63.6%). About two thirds of participants use 1-2 medications (n= 298, 65.8%). The vast majority of study participants have good adherence to diabetic medications. Participants with longer duration with the disease had better adherence (P< 0.001). Furthermore, participants with low number of medication had better adherence (P= 0.035).

Conclusion: On average, patients lacked diabetes management knowledge. Insulin-treated or long-term diabetic patients are at a greater risk for problems, although they have self-help techniques. Improved treatment of diabetes and its complications may arise from interventions that increase people's awareness of the condition, how often they check their blood sugar, how consistently they take their prescriptions, and how much they value physical exercise. Our results also show that people with diabetes, especially insulin-dependent or long-term sufferers, should attend diabetes education/awareness programs and participate in healthy lifestyle and self-help regimens immediately following diagnosis.