The focus of this research study was to assess the effect of no medication on hospitalization and death involving patients with diabetes. The researchers conducted the study based on 11, 532 patients in a medical care setting named Kaiser Permanente of Colorado. Patients with diabetes registered from September 2002 to December 2003 were used in the study and the outcomes were obtained from January 2004 through April 2005. The researchers watched medication intake of individuals by calculating the proportion of day covered prescription (PDC). A PDC was measured for oral hypoglycemics, antihypertensives, and statin medications. Furthermore, the researchers uses statistical analysis to test association between medication adherence hospitalization and mortality. The data was collected based on the KCPO’s existing data sources on hospitalization and death. The secondary outcome was the HbA1c, BP, and LDL-C levels of a patient in the year 2004. These two data sets were then compared using the 2-tailed t test and the all-hospitalization and all-mortality were compared using using an X^2 test. Using multivariable analysis, medication non-adherence was significantly associated with higher risks for all-cause hospitalization with a P <.001 and all-cause mortality with a P<.001. The p-value less than .001 means that there is a statistically significant difference from patients who take medication versus patients who do not in hospitalization and death. Additionally, they discovered that non-adherent patients had higher glycosylated hemoglobin, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. The patients with diabetes who were non-adherent had a worse outcome within their health and should develop treatment targets to benefit themselves. 

Citation: Ho PM, Rumsfeld JS, Masoudi FA, McClure DL, Plomondon ME, Steiner JF, Magid DJ. Effect of Medication Nonadherence on Hospitalization and Mortality Among Patients With Diabetes Mellitus. Arch Intern Med.2006;166(17):1836–1841. doi:10.1001/archinte.166.17.1836

By: Noorulain Paracha