Diabetes knowledge, medication adherence, and glycemic control among diabetic patients: A cross-sectional study in Jordan

ABSTRACT

There is an increasing prevalence of diabetes and its associated complications worldwide and in Jordan. Enhancingthe knowledge level of diabetes may help in glycemic control, but few studies in Jordan assessed that. Therefore, theobjectives of the present study were to assess the level of diabetes knowledge among study participant and to studythe potential predictors of glycemic control. The methodology involved conducting a cross-sectional quantitativestudy. Our study participants were patients treated in the Endocrine Clinic of Jordan University Hospital. As for thetools, we utilized Michigan Diabetes Knowledge test to assess the knowledge level of diabetes, Morisky MedicationAdherence Scale for the assessment of medication adherence, and the level of HbA1c to indicate glycemic control.Study findings showed that the median score of knowledge was 13, (IQR, 4) (interquartile range) with a score range of0–23. The median for medication adherence was 6 (IQR, 3) on a scale from 0 to 8 with zero being adherent. The data ofthe present study showed a moderate level of diabetes knowledge among study participants and low adherence scoresto diabetes medications, with no correlations between variables of the study and the socio-demographic variables.