Evaluation Of Medication Adherence Among Patients With Chronic Diseases In Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND Medication adherence in chronic diseases patients is a worldwide concern. Not achieving the goal of treatments because of nonadherence will lead to more complications and eventually may lead to death. In Saudi Arabia we have insufficient data for interpretation. Hence, this study aims to have a better perspective at the number of the nonadherent patients with chronic diseases to their medications and its associated factors. MATERIAL AND METHOD Cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted among chronic diseases patients living in Saudi Arabia throughout social media and hospital visits from August 2018 to April 2019. A three sections questionnaire consists of patient's health, medications, and Adherence characteristics. Adherence to Refills and Medication Scale (ARMS) was used to identify the level of adherence among chronic diseases patients. Univariate descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test with one-way ANOVA were used as bivariate analysis. Finally, significant predictors of medical adherence with adjusted coefficient were determined by multivariable linear regression. RESULTS A total of 385 patients were included in the analysis for the current study. Overall, 96.62% (n=372) were non-adherent to their medications according to ARMS scale. Multiple linear regression model found types of co-morbidities, medication dosage form and dosage regimen to be independent predictors of medical adherence. CONCLUSION Medication adherence is alarmingly low among chronic disease patients in Saudi Arabia. There is a clear need for in-depth understanding for barriers. It is therefore important to conduct a qualitative study.