STUDY OF DRUG COMPLIANCE AMONG DIABETIC PATIENTS

Abstract

Diabetes is one of the most common ailments that the general population suffer in today’s world. Some are aware about their disturbing blood sugar levels and even understand the importance of appropriate control of the levels with the right medications. Some are aware and yet ignorant due to various causes. This study is aimed at evaluating the drug compliance among type 2 diabetes patients attending the review op of the department of Diabetology, KMCH. A study group of 100 patients attending the review OP were enrolled in the study. The compliance was assessed with the help of their diabetic OP records and a pretested questionnaire was used to further dig into the possible causes for non compliance. The study is broadly based on two main factors leading to non-compliance-causes for patients not getting medicines regularly and causes for patients not taking medicines regularly. These two factors were analyzed based on gender, age, duration of diabetes, co morbid illness, distance etc. The results have shown that 39% of the patients were not getting the medications regularly, out of which 33.3% did not get it due to sheer laziness,38.5% were forgetful and other serious illness hindered 28.2% of the patients from getting their medications. It was found that 55% of the patients took their medications regularly. Among those who took medications regularly,80.3% were regular and 15.4% were not regular in getting medications. Among  those who did not take medications regularly,66.7% claimed to be forgetful and 46.7% were non complaint as they did not have adequate knowledge about their medications.33.3% of the patients did not take it regularly as it gave them a feeling of wellbeing which tempted them to skip doses. Based on these significant data, we will be able to suggest ways and measures to improve the compliance on the treatment aspect. This would increase the desired therapeutic outcome and ultimately, on a broad aspect, it will reduce national health costs.

Key words: drug compliance, therapeutic outcome