Self-reported medication and lifestyle adherence in Hungarian patients with Type 2 diabetes

BACKGROUND

Type 2 diabetes is a complex disorder that requires the patient to pay constant attention to diet, physical activity, glucose monitoring and medication.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the medication, lifestyle adherence and factors associated to these in Type 2 diabetes in Hungarian patients.

SETTING

Fourteen community pharmacies in Hungary between March and May 2004.

METHOD

A questionnaire was given to every tenth Type 2 diabetic patient who presented to one of the 14 pharmacies included in this study with a prescription for oral antidiabetics, oral antidiabetics and insulin or exclusively insulin. For the latter two groups, the prerequisite for inclusion in the study was also that their diabetes had developed after the age of 35 and that at some in their treatment regimen they had taken only oral antidiabetics. These latter two criteria were controlled in the patient's general practitioners' (GP) database. General and diabetes-related data were collected in the questionnaire, and the adherence and lifestyle of the participant were assessed. An adapted and validated Hungarian version of the EQ-5D (EuroQol Group, 1993) quality-of-life questionnaire was also included. Descriptive and chi(2) test statistical methods and two sample t-test were used. A significance level of P<0.05 was considered to be significant.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Patient self-reported adherence to diet, physical activity, self monitoring of blood glucose, purchasing of drug(s), drug regimen, association of demographic factors, treatment, lifestyle and quality of life on adherence.

RESULTS

Of the 220 questionnaires distributed to diabetic patients, 151 were returned, of which 142 were evaluated (nine did not satisfy the above-mentioned inclusion criteria). With respect to the factors assessed, sub-optimal adherence was assessed for: diet (76.8%), physical activity (33.8%), self-monitoring of blood glucose (81%), drug purchasing (20.4%) and drug taking (52.1%). Smokers comprised 14.8% of the respondents, while 8.5% were heavy drinkers. Fewer than five meals a day were eaten by 46.5% of the patients, and about 43.6% of the patients did not self-monitor blood glucose. The results indicate few significant associations between at least one of the four main areas of adherence (diet, physical activity, purchasing of drug(s), drug regimen) and body mass index, GP consultation frequency, quality-of-life parameters and EQ-5D index.

CONCLUSION

The adherence of Hungarian Type 2 diabetics in some areas does not reach optimal levels, especially for diet, self-monitoring, drug purchasing and adherence to drug taking.