Assessment of Medication Adherence among Non-communicable Chronic Disease Patients in Quetta, Pakistan: Predictors of Medication Adherence

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the level of medication adherence among patients with different non-communicable chronic diseases in Quetta, Pakistan. Moreover this study has also evaluated the factors affecting medication adherence.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in patients with different non-communicable chronic diseases, by visiting outpatient departments in public/private hospitals and clinics in Quetta, Pakistan. The Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (Urdu version) was used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics were used to present the demographic and disease-related information. Inferential statistics were used to evaluate the relationship among study variables. All analyses were performed using SPSS 20.0.

Results: A total of 505 patients with different non-communicable chronic diseases were enrolled for the present study. The mean age of the patients was 44.9 years, and the majority, 304 (60.2%), were females. Most patients in this study had exhibited poor medication adherence (61.0%) while only a few (11.1%) were adherent to their medication and some (27.9%) had shown moderate adherence to medication. In addition, patient’s age, gender, ethnic group, disease type, forgetfulness, patient’s satisfaction level, motivation level, number of medicines prescribed and frequency of medicine used were identified as significant influential factors for drug adherence.

Conclusion: The study concluded that the level of medication adherence among patients with non- communicable chronic diseases was very poor and predictors were also identified. Efforts should be made to overcome the factors associated with non-adherence so that the level of adherence is improved to achieve better therapeutic outcomes.