Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder with grievous complications affecting every aspect of patients’ life. Availability of social support helps patients to cope better with the disease, hence positively affecting medication adherence and glycemic control.

Objectives: To assess the types of perceived social support and its relationship to medication adherence among T2DM patients attending a public hospital in Lagos, Nigeria.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study of 230 consenting adult T2DM patients selected by systematic random sampling and conducted at the General Hospital Odan, Lagos Island. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to gather information about the patients’ socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. The Medical Outcome Study Social Support Survey and Morisky-8 item Medication Adherence Scale were used to obtain information about perceived social support and medication adherence respectively. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences version 20. Independent sample t-test was used to determine the difference in mean medication adherence between the two levels of social support and level of statistical significance was set at P< 0.05.

Results: Majority (57.8%) of the patients had a high level of social support. Tangible support was the highest form of social support available to the patients followed by affectionate support. About 43% of the patients had good medication adherence. Positive social interaction was the only type of social support that had a statistically significant relationship with medication adherence (P= 0.031).

Conclusion: Level of social support among our T2DM patients is high. Positive social interaction has a statistically significant relationship with medication adherence.

Keywords: T2DM, social support, medication adherence