Abstract
Background: Health complications with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) increases as the patient's age increases. This study aimed to investigate if the pharmacist counseling program has an impact on patient medication adherence and satisfaction of elderly diabetic patients. Moreover, it was aimed to investigate the impact of patients' adherence to HbA1c. Methods: This is a comparative study that was carried out in the diabetic clinic in a governmental hospital at King Saud Hospital, Unaizah city, in Saudi Arabia, over a period of eight months starting from June 2015. 102 patients were included in this study. In order to evaluate adherence and satisfaction, we used Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (MMAS-8) and Diabetes Medication Satisfaction (DiabMedSat) questionnaires, respectively. Results: The mean total score of pre-MMAS-8 was 4.15 +/- 0.85. The mean total score of post-MMAS-8 was 5.67 +/- 0.51. The level of adherence after the intervention program showed 88.2% of patients with a low level of adherence and 11.8% of patients with a moderate level of adherence. The difference between the pre total satisfaction (49.13 +/- 11.01) and post total satisfaction (54.4 +/- 59.19) was significant (p=0.001). The correlation analysis between medication adherence and HbA1c in the present study revealed a non-significant correlation. Conclusion: The intervention program has improved medication adherence, satisfaction, and HbA1c level among elderly patients with T2DM. Gender was significantly associated with medication adherence, satisfaction, and HbAlc level. In addition, the patient's education level was significantly associated with medication adherence and satisfaction.