[Adherence to Oral Antihyperglycemic Agents (Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitors and Biguanides) and Its Associated Factors in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes].

To investigate medication adherence to oral antihyperglycemic agents and its associated factors in Japanese type 2 diabetic patients, a questionnaire survey was conducted in 983 adult patients receiving once-daily (QD) or twice-daily (BID) dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4 inhibitor) or BID biguanides (BG) as monotherapy at 502 pharmacies in Japan. The percentage of patients with good adherence (the proportion of days in which patients took all pills as prescribed in the past 7 days >= 80%) was high ( >= 90%) in any dosing regimen with no significant difference among the groups. The following factors were identified as associating with good adherence: the longer duration of type 2 diabetes ( >= 1 year) (p = 0.002), "Feeling your disease gets worse if you don't take medications" (p = 0.031), "Not forgetting to bring along your medicine when you leave home" (p = 0.007), "Feeling anxiety on taking medications for long period of time" (p = 0.042), "Neither feeling nor not feeling anxiety on taking medications for a long period of time" (p = 0.004), "Never run out of your medicine because you get a refill on time" (p = 0.035), and the lower MMAS-4 score (p <0.001). Subgroup analyses revealed that adherence of younger patients (<65 years) with BG (BID) was lower than those with DPP-4 inhibitor (QD) (p = 0.021). Additionally, around 60% of patients currently prescribed with QD preferred QD regimen, and >= 80% patients prescribed with BID equally preferred once-weekly or QD regimen, suggesting a large discrepancy exists between their preference and the actual regimen in patients on BID.