[Validity of 6 indirect methods in the evaluation of compliance to drug treatment of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus].

SV and DC with basal blood glucose were the highest validity indicators and could be used combined in clinical practice to evaluate compliance with oral hypoglycemic agents.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To validate six indirect methods for evaluation of therapy compliance with oral hypoglycemic agents: self-reported compliance, attendance to scheduled visits, Morisky-Green test, degree of disease control, medical judgement and level of knowledge on the disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The certainty method used was pill counts at patient's home by surprise with a sample of 107 randomly selected patients from three Primary Care Centers in the province of Alicante. RESULTS: SV was the method with the highest specificity (94.2%), likelihood of low compliance (84.2%) and percentage of likelihood of low compliance (5.1). DC assessed by basal blood glucose had the highest sensitivity (81.8%) and DC assessed by glycoxylated hemoglobin the highest likelihood of high compliance (61.1%). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, SV and DC with basal blood glucose were the highest validity indicators and could be used combined in clinical practice to evaluate compliance with oral hypoglycemic agents.