Medication Adherence and Its Associated Factors among Kidney Transplant Patients in St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College

Abstract

Abstract Background: This study examines medication adherence among kidney transplant patients at St. Paul's Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, focusing on the level of adherence and associated factors to immunosuppressant medicines. Methods and Materials: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 270 patients from October 2021 to January 2022 using a structured questionnaire to be analyzed with SPSS version 26. The prevalence of medication adherence was computed, and a binary logistic regression was fitted to estimate the association. A 95% confidence interval and p-value <0.05 were used for statistical significance. Results: The study found that 71.5% of kidney transplant patients were male, with a median age of 37 and a mean duration of 3.55 years. Medication adherence in post-kidney transplant patients was 81.9%. Being more than 5 years post-transplant and missing follow-up visits more than two times led to a 92.6% and 91.2% decrease in medication adherence respectively. Additionally, forgetfulness was associated with a 90.6% lower adherence level compared to drug unavailability and financial reasons. Conclusion and recommendation: The study indicates that our patients exhibit higher medication adherence than WHO-measured levels, suggesting the need for healthcare providers to encourage this, especially for those above 5 years post-kidney transplant.