Treatment Adherence and Quality of Life in Diabetes Mellitus Patients in Indonesia

Abstract

Adherence to treatment of diabetes mellitus (DM) can support successful therapy due to drug consumption over longtime periods. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the treatment adherence in DM as related to the quality of life and to evaluate factors associated with adherence and quality of life. This study used the Brief Medication Questionnaire (BMQ) to measure patients’ adherence. The Diabetes Quality of Life Clinical Trial Questionnaire (DQLCTQ) was used to measure patients’ quality of life. Subjects of this cross-sectional study were DM patients attending two private hospitals in Yogyakarta and who had been taking DM medications for more than 6 months. Statistical analyses used in this study were student’s t test and regression linear test. We recruited 65 DM patients who met the inclusion criteria. There were no significant differences of BMQ screens and DQLCTQ functions between monotherapy and combination therapy groups ( p > .05). The BMQ screens’ score of combination therapy were higher than monotherapy groups. The physical function, health distress, and mental health of combination therapy groups were higher than monotherapy group. The male patients had significantly higher score of regimen domain of BMQ than female patients (0.35 and 0.17, respectively). The older age has the lower score of treatment effect of DQLCTQ ( p < .05). The belief, recall, and belief about adverse drug reaction of BMQ have positive correlation with physical function ( r = .542, .424, and .640, respectively). Our study concluded that the quality of care, sex, and age may predict patients’ adherence and quality of life. There were positive correlation between patients’ adherence and quality of life.