Medication used and adherence in treatment of type 2 diabetic outpatients at Cu Lao Dung district health Center, Soc Trang province

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the use of medication and treatment adherence in type-2 diabetes patients at the Healthcare Center in Cu Lao Dung District, Soc Trang Province. A cross-sectional descriptive study design with retrospective and prospective data collection was applied. It included 395 medical records and treatment adherence survey forms which was collected during the last 6 months of 2020. The results indicated that metformin was the most widely used drug with a utilization rate of 85,8%, and its dose of 500 mg was prescribed at the highest rate. The utilization rate of insulin was 6,8%, with the highest proportion of insulin users taking it in the morning at 22.2%. There were two treatment protocols: monotherapy (34,9%) and combination therapy (65,1%). In the monotherapy, metformin accounted for 20,8%, gliclazide for 9,6%, and insulin for 4,6%. In the combination therapy, the highest proportion was metformin + glimepiride, accounting for 38,2%. Fatigue (31,9%), abdominal discomfort and bloating (20,8%), and nausea and vomiting (14,7%) were revealed as common adverse events after drug use. There was no case of severe drug interaction. The adherence rate to type-2 antidiabetic drug usage was not high, with only 14,4% demonstrating good adherence and 53,9% considered to have moderate adherence. The factors related to adherence were living conditions and educational level (p < 0,05). From these results, it is necessary to reinforce the quality of patient counseling to educate patients about diabetic disease and medication use, resulting in improvement of adherence amounts in type-2 diabetic outpatients.