Abstract
The prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus is growing at an alarming rate across the globe. India is considered to have the highest population of diabetics in the world and this is a growing concern. Many of the interventions that have been attempted to improve medication adherence in diabetic patients have been educational; with the presupposition that knowledge regarding their condition may affect one’s adherence to their medication regimen. The study was conducted to assess the diabetic knowledge and medication adherence in patients suffering from Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. A total of 400 diabetic patients from South India were included in this questionnaire based study. Participants who fulfilled the eligibility criteria were approached in person and the necessary study specific data was collected. We used two questionnaires namely Michigan Diabetes Knowledge Test and Morisky Medication Adherence Scale to assess the subjects. The scores were totaled and analyzed using statistical tools to provide quantitative results. About 54.75% of the total population had poor medication adherence scores and 13.75% of them had high medication adherence. We were able to find four factors that influenced a patient’s level of adherence which were Forgetfulness (64.25%), Feeling better (75%), Feeling worse (79.25%), and Inconvenience (61.75%). The knowledge levels were analyzed and found that 51.35% showed poor diabetic knowledge and only few (3.25%) showed a better understanding of their medical condition. A significantly higher score of medication adherence was found in those patients with higher diabetes knowledge scores. On applying statistics, a significant relationship was obtained on analyzing the two parameters - knowledge and medication adherence. This study substantiates the fact that knowledge about one’s medical condition is vital to medication adherence. Healthcare professionals as well as patient’s need to be made aware of the relationship between knowledge and medication adherence; sufficient time must be allotted for patient education in healthcare settings.
