| Abstract: | OBJECTIVE:to investigate the factors related to medication adherence and its relation to
Health- Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in elderly people with diabetic
retinopathy.METHOD: one hundred (n=100) elderly outpatients with diabetic retinopathy taking
antihypertensives and/or oral antidiabetics/insulin were interviewed. Adherence
was evaluated by the adherence proportion and its association with the care taken
in administrating medications and by the Morisky Scale. The National Eye Institute
Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) was used to evaluate HRQoL. RESULTS: most (58%) reported the use of 80% or more of the prescribed dose and care in
utilizing the medication. The item "stopping the drug when experiencing an adverse
event", from the Morisky Scale, explained 12.8% and 13.5% of the variability of
adherence proportion to antihypertensives and oral antidiabetics/insulin,
respectively. CONCLUSION: there was better HRQoL in the Color Vision, Driving and Social Functioning
domains of the NEI VFQ-25. Individuals with lower scores on the NEI VFQ-25 and
higher scores on the Morisky Scale presented greater chance to be nonadherent to
the pharmacological treatment of diabetes and hypertension. |
