Adherence in adults with type 1 diabetes mellitus correlates with treatment satisfaction but not with adverse events

Purpose: Diabetes self-care and self-monitoring adherence has a positive effect on the metabolic control of the disease. The aim of this study was to analyze the adherence to self-care recommendations and to identify its correlates in adults with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Patients and methods: One hundred and eleven patients with type 1 diabetes were enrolled in an observational cross-sectional study conducted at the Diabetes Center of the University Hospital in Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. Diabetes self-care adherence was measured by the Self Care Inventory-Revised, and treatment satisfaction by the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire-status version. Additional data were collected from self-administered questionnaires and medical records. The Mann-Whitney test, Spearman correlations, and multiple linear regressions were used in the statistical analysis. Results: The mean age of patients was 42.4 years; 59.5% of them were females and 53.2% of all patients used an insulin pump. The mean glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA(1c)) was 66.2 +/- 15.3 mmol/mol and the mean insulin dosage was 0.6 +/- 0.3 IU insulin/kg/day. The number of hypoglycemic episodes (including severe) that patients had in the last month before taking the survey was 3.6 +/- 3.2. Self-care adherence was associated with treatment satisfaction (0.495; P = 0.004) along with frequency of self-monitoring of before meal blood glucose (0.267; P = 0.003). It was not associated with the incidence of hypoglycemic events or any other insulin therapy-related problems or with socio-demographic or clinical characteristics. Conclusion: Treatment satisfaction is one of the key factors that need to be targeted to maximize benefits to patients. Self-care adherence in adults with type 1 diabetes did not correlate with socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, nor with adverse events.