Background: Medication nonadherence is a common problem facing healthcare providers treating adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). COVID-19 has dangerous impacts on patients with diabetes because diabetic patients have a greater probability of severe complications if the virus infects them. The present study aimed to assess the medication adherence among T2DM patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia.
Methods: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted among adult patients with T2DM in Saudi Arabia from June 2021 to September 2021. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among the targeted population, including sociodemographic data, general health data, and the General Medication Adherence Scale. The data were analyzed using Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences version 26 Armonk, NY, IBM Corp, and p < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: A total of 856 patients with type 2 diabetes were analyzed during this study. Medication adherence was found to be more common in those patients whose diabetes mellitus duration exceeded 5 years. It was revealed that high levels of nonadherence were due to the other disease and pill burden domain (57.6%), followed by financial constraints (47.1%) and patient behavior (40.8%). The overall level of medication adherence was high among 51.4% of the respondents.
Conclusion: When knowing the factors associated with poor medication adherence, we should advise by applying some strategies in daily practice to achieve satisfactory medication adherence, significantly increasing patient education and awareness toward medication to achieve higher therapeutic benefits and avoid complications.
Key words: COVID-19, Saudi Arabia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, adherence, pandemic
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