Factors affecting adherence to treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Introduction: Diabetic patients' adherence to the treatment prevents acute complications and delays chronic complications by affecting glycemic control. This study aims to examine the factors affecting treatment compliance in Type 2 diabetic patients.Method: The study is a cross-sectional study. 400 patients, who applied to the outpatient clinic of Endocrinology of Dicle University Faculty of Medicine from March to June 2011, formed the sample of the study. A questionnaire, with questions about socio-demographic characteristics and factors that may affect treatment compliance, was administered by face-to-face interview technique. SPSS 11.0 package program was used for database creation and analysis. Statistically percent, chi-square, Student's t test, logistic regression methods were used.Results: The mean age of patients was 53.9 ± 11.8% and 67.8% were female. 53.2% of patients were not literate. The average disease duration is 9.1 ± 6.6. The positive family history was 57.2%. 77.2% of patients do not receive support for diabetes care maintaining. 47.5% of patients did not attend any diabetes education program. 72.0% of patients had additional disease, 78.5% were physically inactive and 82.0% were smokers. Non-compliance to treatment was 42.8%. Educational status, participation to training program on diabetes status, place of residence, social security status and duration of illness was found to be factors that affect adherence to treatment. Adherence to treatment was found 2.52 (1.14 to 5.56) times higher in literate patients than non-literate patients, 2.84 (1.09?7.35) times higher in city center residents than village residents.Conclusion: Problems of diabetes care education and diabetes care maintaining of patients with low education status affects adherence to treatment. Patients should be made literate and promotion of appropriate training methods and inclusion of these in primary health care services within the scope of the Basic Health Services will increase treatment compliance.Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, treatment, adherence, affecting factors, Diyarbakir