Medication adherence in hypertensive diabetic patients

Background: Diabetes-related hypertension increases mortality risk by 7.2 times in the underdeveloped countries such as Iraq, with a greater risk of death. In developing countries, patients' adherence to chronic illness treatments such as hypertension and diabetes is low. Nonadherence is linked to higher rates of hospitalization and poor health outcomes. Objectives: The aim of this study to determine the prevalence of medication adherence among the hypertensive diabetic patients and to identify factors that associated with poor or nonadherence to medications. Materials and Methods: This is a hospital-based descriptive cross-sectional study. The study included a sample of 385 hypertensive diabetic patients of both gender, their ages above 18 years. The study was carried out from February 2022 to the end of May 2022 at the consultation clinics at Imam Al-Sadiq and Marjan Teaching Hospitals, Babylon, Iraq. Following verbal consent, the participants were interviewed using a prepared structured validated and reliable questionnaire will be use that includes demographic characteristics using the Morisky 8 Item Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) was used to assess medication adherence. Results: This study showed that more than half of the patients (51.2%) had low adherence, whereas 22.9% had medium adherence. Those with high adherence constituted 26.0%. There were statistically significant associations between good adherence and high level of education, younger age, and nonsmoking. Patients with good adherence to medications have better blood pressure and blood sugar control. Conclusion: The level of medication adherence among diabetic hypertensive patients in Babylon province is low.