Background: Non adherence to diabetes medications leads to frequent relapses, poor treatment outcome, reduced quality of life and significant increases in healthcare cost in a resource poor country and a healthcare system already overburdened by infectious illnesses and other diseases. This study verified the adherence of people with type2 diabetes mellitus and factors associated with it. Objective: This study was carried out to assess the prevalence of non-adherence to medication, and identify factors associated with it in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Study Design: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on a sample of one hundred and twenty three out-patients, aged over 18 years and diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus and who have been on oral medications for at least a year prior to study entry. Socio-demographic and clinical variables were collected and compared between participants with optimal and suboptimal adherence. Results: The mean ages of participants were 59.68±11.8 and mean duration of illness 7.22 About one-in-four (28%) were poor adherers to their diabetes medications. Variables with significant association with non-adherence include marital status (x2= 8.73, df= 1, p= 0.01), educational level (x2= 6.96, df= f, p= 0.01), employment status (x2= 4.89, df= 1, p= 0.030), duration of illness (x2= 3.07, df= 1, p= 0.08) and patients’ living arrangement (x2= 4.28, df= 1, p= 0.04). In multivariate analysis, predictors of poor adherence were: lack of treatment supervision (OR 0.032, p-value< 0.001), poor attitude to medication (OR 0.015, p< 0.001)
Conclusion: Medication non-adherence in patients with type 2