Medication non-adherence and associated factors among diabetes patients in Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital, Bahir Dar city administration, Northwest Ethiopia

OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to assess medication non-adherence and associated factors among adult diabetes in Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital Bahir Dar city administration. To overcome this object, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 416 randomly selected diabetes patients at the Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital (FHRH). Eight item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale questionnaire was used to assess medication non-adherence. Binary logistic regression was applied to analyze the collected data. P-value less than 0.05 with 95% confidence interval was considered statistically significant between dependent and explanatory variables. RESULT: Among 416 participants, 242 (58.2%) were male diabetes patient. The mean age (± SD) of the study participant was 45.4 (± 16. 7) years. Based on the MMAS-8 scale, non-adherence to diabetes medication was 68.8% [95% CI 62.0, 71.4]. The multivariate analysis, age group from 18 to 35 years old (AOR: 2.26: 95% CI 1.23, 5.58), single (AOR: 3.55; 95% CI 1.59, 7.29), fear of diabetes related complication (AOR: 3.01; 95% CI 1.66, 5.53) and feeling worse (AOR: 2.55; 95% CI 1.45, 4.53) were significantly associated with non-adherence to prescribed diabetes medications. Therefore, developing a more intensive communication strategy and improving the quality of prescribed drug compliance could improve the level of adherence.