Adherence to treatment by patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus at Monze Mission Hospital,Monze,Zambia

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common non-communicable diseases and one of the leading cause of disability, morbidity and mortality globally (Jackson et al., 2014). The aim of the study was to assess adherence to treatment by type 2 Diabetes mellitus patients aged 20 years and above at Monze Mission Hospital in Monze district. It sought to answer the research questions: (1) What is the level of adherence to treatment by patients with type 2 Diabetes mellitus receiving care from Monze Mission Hospital? (2) What factors influence adherence to treatment by patients with type 2 Diabetes mellitus? A cross-sectional study design was used at Monze Mission Hospital in Monze district. Simple random sampling method was used to select 138 patients who sought medical services from the Out-patient medical clinic as well as admitted patients in the hospital. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data. Data was entered and analyzed using the IBM® Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS®) for Windows version 22 to predict levels of adherence to treatment as well as to identify factors which influenced adherence among type 2 DM patients. Chi – Square (X2) test was used to test the associations between variables. The binary logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis to determine true predictors of adherence. The findings showed that, 56.5% patients had poor adherence to treatment while 44.2% had good adherence to treatment. More than half of the patients (55.6%) had knowledge about Diabetes mellitus treatment. About 65.2% of patients indicated that distance to the hospital and financial challenges were a hindrance to seeking regular medical reviews. The study results showed a statistically significant association between adherence and knowledge of type 2 Diabetes mellitus treatment (p = 0.024). Distance to the hospital, health care services and attitude to self-care management were statistically insignificant despite influencing adherence to Diabetes mellitus treatment (p > 0.05) The study showed that poor adherence to treatment reduced as knowledge about Diabetes mellitus increased. However, distance to hospital impacted negatively to adherence as vii patients‟ adherence to treatment reduced as distance to the hospital increased. There is need to consider educational programs to strengthen adherence to dietary advice, regular exercise and follow up, to achieve normal glycemic levels as opposed to adhering to either oral hypoglycaemic drugs or insulin or both, to improve the management of type 2 Diabetes mellitus patients at Monze Mission Hospital. Adherence to type 2 Diabetes mellitus; Treatment; Patients.