An-Najah University Journal for Research - Natural Sciences (A) ISSN: 1727-2114

Volume 19 , 2005, Pages: 001-011

Rate of Compliance among Patients with Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension

Waleed Sweileh*, Ola Aker**, Saed Hamooz**

waleedsweileh@yahoo.com

*College of Pharmacy. An-Najah National University. **Ministry of Health. Nablus Palestine.

Received : 29-12-2003 , Accepted : 31-10-2004

Language: English

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to measure the rate of compliance of patients with chronic diseases (diabetes mellitus and hypertension) who attend the clinics of the ministry of health (MOH) in northern Palestine. Three hundred and twenty one (321) patients are personally interviewed using graded questionnaire to assess their compliance. The results has shown that there is 6.5% non-compliance, 52.4% poor/partial compliance and 42.1% good compliance among the tested sample. The percentage of noncompliance is correlated with the percentage of illiteracy and lack of drug and disease knowledge among the tested sample. Gender and place of living are not influential while age, education, and type of disease are influential on patient’s rate of compliance. Diabetic patients have better overall rate of compliance than hypertensive patients. These results should encourage the health authorities in Palestine to implement techniques that would monitor and enhance the patient’s compliance. This would ultimately reduce national health costs and increase the patient’s desired therapeutic outcome.

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