Evaluation of Treatment Adherence, Blood Sugar Control, and Related Factors in Patients with Diabetes Detected in Aran and Bidgol in 2020–2021

Diabetes is a chronic, progressive, and metabolic disease that its prevalence is increasing in the world. Poor treatment adherence is a barrier to controlling diabetes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the treatment adherence and blood sugar control in patients with diabetes and related factors.

This descriptive‑analytical study was performed on 385 patients with diabetes in 2020–2021 at both Aran and Bidgol health centers. A proportion of diabetic patients in each center were selected based on the covered population by simple random sampling. The tools was Madanloo’s treatment adherence questionnaire and also measured glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C) level of patients during the last 3 months. Data were statistically analyzed by SPSS‑19. T‑test, analysis of variance, Spearman correlation coefficient, Tukey, and multiple linear regression were used.

The mean ± standard deviation total score of treatment adherence was 61.43 ± 10.02 that 15.1% of patients had a mean adherence score, 79.5% had a good adherence score and 5.5% received a very good treatment adherence score. Various factors such as marital status (P = 0.013), employment status (P = 0.003), housing status (P = 0.001), other diseases (P = 0.004), drug side effects (P = 0.001), belief in the need for medication (P = 0.001), insurance (P = 0.002), number of children (P = 0.003), and monthly income (P = 0.003) affect the rate of adherence to treatment.

The treatment adherence in patients with diabetes was desirable. The results of the research can be used to design interventions to increase compliance with treatment to better control HbA1C and diabetes and reduce treatment costs.