Knowledge and Factors Associated with Treatment Compliance among Diabetes Mellitus Patients in Selected Hospitals in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an emerging public health problem of the 21st century that threatens to overwhelm the health care system and has been identified as the sixth leading cause of death worldwide. The overall prevalence of Diabetes has been estimated to be as high as 17%, due to drastic lifestyle changes accompanying urbanization and westernization and this make diabetics prone to complications and increased mortality as a result of lack of proper awareness and education. This project made use of a descriptive cross-sectional study design to assess knowledge and factors associated with treatment compliance among diabetic patients in Ibadan, Nigeria. The estimated target population for the study was 372 and research assistants were recruited and trained to assist in data collection. Data was entered using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics, Chi-square, t-test, and logistic regression.

A total of 65 patients had a good knowledge of DM and 96.7% of the respondents knew that too much sugar intake, alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyle, pancreas disorder, and old age are some of the possible causes of DM while 23.7% and 42.9% listed lack of funds to purchase drugs and taking too much food which ought to be taken in small amount as some of the factors associated treatment compliance of DM. The patients’ knowledge relating to diabetes is fairly high but despite this, more needs to be done to combat the challenges of high cost of drugs, distance to health care facilities, inadequate financial assistance as well as limited social support faced by diabetic patients.