Assessment of medication adherence and knowledge regarding the disease among ambulatory patients with diabetes mellitus in Karachi, Pakistan

Objective: To report medication adherence among ambulatory patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) using Morisky 8-item medication adherence MMAS-8 scale and assess current standard of knowledge regarding their disease using a especially developed Patient 10-item Knowledge Assessment PKA-X scale. Methods: A quantitative cross sectional study was conducted for 3 months in Karachi, Pakistan using Morisky 8-item medication adherence scale® documenting the medication adherence of ambulatory patients with DM and to find out their knowledge regarding the disease using a newly developed Patient 10-item knowledge assessment PKA-X scale. Results: The mean MMAS-8 score of the total sample was 4.69 (1.9 SD) which was interpreted as ‘Low medication adherence’ (P value<0.01). Majority of patients (N=204, 79.4%) had low adherence (P value<0.01). The mean score reported by PKA-X scale was 9.0 (SD 1.4) which was interpreted as ‘Excellent knowledge’. Bulk of patients (N=202, 78.6%) had excellent knowledge (P value<0.01). No significant association existed between patient knowledge and their medication adherence (P value>0.05). Conclusion: The medication adherence of the patients is very low and adequate measures are the need of the hour to address this issue though the standard of knowledge has greatly improved. However, having good knowledge about the disease does not guarantee adherence to medication regimen.