Abstract
Background:
Non-adherence to the drug treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus is a problem that generates significant clinical, health, economic, and social damage.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to describe the research methods on adherence to the drug treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus in the elderly people of the Family Health Strategy in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo.
Method:
This is a cross-sectional study with random sampling by clusters conducted from March to October 2018. The data collection instrument had sociodemographic variables, health care, access and use of services, emotional distress related to diabetes, and use of medication, with adherence estimated by the Brief Medication Questionnaire.
Results:
A total of 16 conglomerates were drawn from the 45 groups. Then, 338 participants were obtained in proportion to the frequency of elderly people with diabetes. Most of the participants were female (66.3%), aged between 60 and 69 years (49.4%), self-reported skin color/race being white (60.9%), studied from 4 to 11 years (53.0%), had a partner (55.6%), and belonged to economic class C (51.8%).
Conclusions:
The methods used in this research proved feasible for the context of Primary Health Care, as the cost was accessible and made it possible to investigate the variables that influenced treatment adherence.
Keywords:
health surveys; epidemiologic methods; aged; diabetes mellitus; primary health care