Factors associated with adherence to medication among depressed patients from Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

Figures & data

Table 1 Characteristics of study participants and their level of adherence

Factor	Frequency (%)	Adherence, mean	Standard deviation
Sex
Male*	200 (49.6)	5.72	±1.84
Female	203 (50.4)	4.75	±1.95
Age (years)
18–30	102 (25.1)	5.55	±1.73
31–40	120 (29.9)	4.77	±2.10
41–50	102 (25.1)	4.65	±1.95
51–60*	80 (19.8)	6.09	±1.66
Education level
No formal education	90 (22.5)	4.86	±2.02
Primary	58 (14.4)	5.42	±1.84
Intermediate	80 (19.8)	4.84	±2.02
Secondary	130 (32.1)	5.60	±2.03
College/bachelor’s degree	45 (11.2)	5.06	±1.52
Number of antidepressant drugs currently taken
One	331 (82.3)	5.19	±1.98
Two	72 (17.7)	5.24	±1.90
Number of clinic visits per year
One	28 (7.0)	4.25	±1.87
Two	41 (10.2)	5.09	±1.92
Three	149 (36.9)	4.67	±1.98
Four*	185 (46.0)	5.79	±1.81
Illness duration
Three years or less**	114 (28.3)	5.57	±1.80
Between 3 and 6 years	92 (23.0)	5.52	±1.89
Between 6 and 9 years	172 (42.8)	4.95	±1.96
More than 9 years	23 (5.9)	3.95	±2.39

Notes: Student’s t-test was used for the differences in the characteristics of the study according to the level of adherence.

* Significant at the P=0.001 level.

** Significant at the P=0.05 level.

Table 2 Participants’ reported adherence behavior by MMAS-8

Item	Percentage (%) of patients who answered yes
When you travel or leave home, do you sometimes forget to bring along your medication?	51.3
People sometimes miss taking their medications for reasons other than forgetting. Thinking over the past two weeks, were there any days when you did not take your medicine?	48.1
Have you ever cut back or stopped taking your medication without telling your doctor, because you felt worse when you took it?	46.8
Do you sometimes forget to take your medicine?	40.6
When you feel like your health condition is under control, do you sometimes stop taking your medicine?	39.0
Taking medication every day is a real inconvenience for some people. Do you ever feel hassled about sticking to your treatment plan?	31.0
How often do you have difficulty remembering to take all your medications?
Never	87.7
Once in a while	7
Sometimes	3.6
Usually	1.7
All of the time	0

Abbreviation: MMAS-8, eight-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale.

Table 3 Patients’ beliefs about antidepressants, the severity of their depression, and their level of adherence

Factor	Low adherence (N=214)		High adherence (N=189)		t-value	P-value
	Mean	Standard deviation	Mean	Standard deviation
General overuse	12.75	2.50	12.18	2.49	1.549	0.123
General harm*	11.74	2.67	10.11	2.45	4.319	0.000
Necessity beliefs	18.02	3.91	18.32	3.90	0.520	0.603
Belief concerns*	14.30	3.50	11.82	3.03	5.153	0.000
Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Scale*	25.75	13.66	17.61	10.92	4.519	0.000

Note:

* Significant at the P=0.001 level.

Abbreviation: N, number of patients.

Table 4 Multiple regression (stepwise method) for study of characteristics influencing adherence (model summary)

	r	r^2	β (unstandardized)	β (standardized)	t-value	P-value (significance level)
Belief concerns	0.402	0.162	−0.157	−0.282	4.306	0.000 (0.01)
General harm	0.472	0.223	−0.147	−0.201	3.027	0.003 (0.01)
Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Scale	0.527	0.278	−0.036	−0.242	3.805	0.000 (0.01)

Table 5 Pearson correlation coefficients between study characteristics and adherence

Factor	Correlation coefficient
General overuse	−0.1512*
General harm	−0.3472**
Necessity beliefs	0.0081
Belief concerns	−0.4019**
Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Scale	−0.3276**

Notes:

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).