Medication Adherence Among Nigerians with Schizophrenia: Correlation Between Clinico-Demographic Factors and Quality of Life

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Date
2017-03-22
Authors
Ogunnubi, O.P.
Olagunju, A.T.
Aina, O.F.
Okubadejo, N.U.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Pagepress Publications
Abstract
Medication adherence contributes significantly to symptom remission, recovery and wellbeing in mental illnesses. We evaluated how medication adherence correlates with clinico-demographic factors and quality of life (QoL) in a sample of Nigerians with schizophrenia. This descriptive cross-sectional study involved 160 randomly selected participants with confirmed diagnosis of schizophrenia based on MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Data on socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of participants were collected with a questionnaire. Medication adherence was assessed with Morisky Medication Adherence Questionnaire, and participants completed the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale-BREF. The mean age of participants was 38.54 (±11.30) years, and all the participants were on antipsychotics, but only 45% were adherent to their medication. Out of all the participants, 45 (28.2%) considered their overall QoL to be good, 97 (60.6%) considered theirs to be fair, while 18 (11.2%) reported poor QoL. Medication non-adherence correlated negatively with good QoL across multiple dimensions including overall QoL (r=-0.175), health satisfaction (r=-0.161), physical (r=-0.186) and psychological domain (r=-0.175). Again, participant's age (r=-0.190) and age of onset of illness (r=-0.172) correlated negatively with medication non-adherence, and a trend towards relapse delay with medication adherence was also observed (r=-0.155). The effect size of these correlations were however small. Our findings suggest a link between medication adherence and QoL in schizophrenia, such that strategy that addresses medication non-adherence and its determinants may have potential benefits on wellbeing. Further hypotheses-driven studies are desirable.
Description
Staff publications
Keywords
Africa , Clinico-Demographic , Medication adherence , Schizophrenia , Wellbeing
Citation
Ogunnubi OP, Olagunju AT, Aina OF, Okubadejo NU. Medication Adherence Among Nigerians with Schizophrenia: Correlation Between Clinico-Demographic Factors and Quality of Life. Ment Illn. 2017 Mar 22;9(1):6889.