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Abstract
Poor adherence is common in patients with diabetes mellitus and other chronic diseases that require extensive self-management. This behavior has been linked to increased complications, mortality rate, and health care costs. Although much effort has been put into studying the barriers to adherence and ways to improve both patient self-care and clinical outcomes, little success can be observed in the long run. Literature review of studies related to medication adherence in diabetes has shown a lack of uniformity in study parameters and statistical analysis making the juxtaposition of studies difficult and unreliable. Intervention studies in the field have shown general improvement in adherence rate in a short period of time, but rarely making any significant differences in clinical outcomes. Since diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease, it would be important to design studies measuring long term effects of interventions in the future.
