Medication adherence and clinical outcomes in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with depression: A prospective interventional study

The aim of the study was toassess the level of depression in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients using Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), to evaluate the range of medication adherence and to identify the reasons for non-adherence to medication in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with depression. Study tools such as Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS), Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) and Daily Diabetes Record Sheet were used. Chi-square test was used to test the association for categorical variables and the Student's t-test was used for group comparisons. Patients with high adherence to medication were found to have good glycemic control than low medication adherence patients. The level of depression of more than half of the patients (51.9%) lies in between PHQ score of 10 and 14 in this study. Reasons for non-adherence were accidental and intentional. The most prevalent among accidental reasons was patient forgetting to take medicines (25.0%), and the most prevalent among intentional reasons was achievement of treatment goals (17.59%). The result outcome of the study states that the level of depression has a significant effect on poor metabolic control, poor diet and non-adherence to the medication regimen.