Medication adherence among ambulatory patients with type 2 diabetes in a tertiary healthcare setting in Southwestern Nigeria

objective: to assess adherence to medication among ambulatory patients with type 2 diabetes, ascertain the level of glycemic control, and evaluate patients′ opinions on probable reasons for non-adherence with a view to identify areas of intervention to improve adherence. methods: a prospective cross-sectional study was carried out at a 900-bed tertiary teaching hospital in ibadan, southwestern nigeria between june and august, 2009. out of 140 consented patients, 114 (81.4%) properly responded to the validated and pre-tested data collection tool and these were subsequently considered for analysis. descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. means and proportions were compared using student t-test and chi-square or kruskal-wallis test as appropriate, with p<0.05 considered statistical significant. results: approximately sixty percent of the patients were adjudged adherent with prescribed medication. out of 58.8% of the cohort who gave their recent fasting plasma glucose (fpg) values, 59.7% had fpg above 110mg/dl. the mean fpg for patients was 139.05 (sd=70.5)mg/dl, males and females significantly differed in their mean fpg, 146.55 (sd=85.0)mg/dl versus 133.33 (sd=57.6)mg/dl respectively (p=0.032). also, the mean fpg values for adherent patients, 137.09 (sd=59.3)mg/dl was lower than their non-adherent counterparts, 143.92 (sd=87.6) mg/dl, but the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.095). financial constraint (34.4%) was the major barrier to optimal adherence with medication. a significant association exist between genders and opinions on physician′s mode of approach during patient-physician interaction as a contributory factor for non-adherence (p=0.038). conclusion: medication adherence of ambulatory type 2 diabetes patients is considerable. however, the relatively high level of adherence did not appear to have significantly impacted on patients′ glycemic status due to a substantial number who had plasma glucose above the recommended targets.