A Comparative Study to Assess Medication Adherence of Patients with Communicable and Non-communicable Diseases Attending Primary Health Centres in a Rural Hospital of India

Introduction: Medication adherence is an important factor in aiding the efficacy of a treatment plan for communicable and non-communicable diseases alike. Non-adherence to medication leads to several detrimental effects on the health of a person and also leads to strain on the health system due to the overload of managing patients with complications.

Objective: This study aims to assess medication adherence of communicable and non-communicable disease treatment under different parameters like age, sex of the patients, type of disease and socioeconomic status.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted by face to face interview with 330 patients,165 in each group attending Primary Health Centres in selected area of study. Interviews were conducted using the MARS scale by following proper protocols to maintain privacy and the data was recorded in real time for analysis.

Results: Overall 30% of patients were in the age group of 31-40 years in the communicable disease group and 31% of patients were in the age group 61-80 years in the NCDs group. 51.5% of the total participants were males in both the groups. The study reveals insightful information as 41.7% and 58.3% of study subjects were non-adherent to medication in the Communicable disease and NCD’s group respectively. 36% non-adherence to medication was seen among 61-80 years of age group of patients. 55.7% of Males showed non- adherence to medication as compared to females (44.3%) (p<0.05). Important reasons of non-adherence to medication were forget to take medicine (78% & 54%), lack of attention on medication schedule (68% &41%) and feeling better after taking medication so stopped (75% & 60%) in the NCD’s & Communicable Diseases group respectively.

Conclusion: Adherence to medication was poor among patients with non-communicable diseases, elderly patients, males in the age group of 21 to 40 years and unemployed patients.