The effect of pillbox use and education by pharmacist toward medication adherence in diabetes mellitus patients in a Primary Health Care Center in Mataram.

Objectives: Nonadherence to a long-term therapy, including diabetes mellitus, is one of the global problems that need to be overcome. This study aims to determine the effect of pillbox use and education by pharmacists toward medication adherence in patients with diabetes mellitus in a Primary Health Care Center in Mataram.

Methods: This research was an experimental research design with pretest-posttest with control group design. The study was conducted from October to December 2019 at Tanjung Karang Primary Health Care Center, Mataram. Measurement of adherence was done using the Adherence to Refill and Medication Scale questionnaire. The higher the score, the more nonadherence the patients. Patients were divided into three groups, which were the control group, educational intervention group, and pillbox and educational intervention group. Each group consisted of 11 patients.

Results: Patients' medication adherence increased from 19.54 (SD 4.37) to 15.18 (SD 2.64) in the education and pillbox intervention group (p=0.004). Whereas, in the education and control group, the adherence did not provide a significant change (p>0.05). Based on the difference in adherence scores, it was known that what contributed to changes in compliance was refilling medicine and intentional nonadherence in taking medicine subscale (p=0.024).

Conclusions: Providing education and pillbox done by pharmacists at the Primary Health Care Center can increase adherence to the therapy of diabetes mellitus patients. Pharmacists at the Primary Health Care Center can use the intervention model to improve the level of adherence of patients with chronic illness.