Background: Adherence to treatment is one of the mainstays of non-communicable diseases adequate control. Non – adherence can affect several aspects to both the patient and the health system. For this reason, it is important to have intervention strategies available to prevent detachment and improve adherence to treatment. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the educational strategy compared with the social and family support for the improvement of adherence in patients with chronic noncommunicable diseases.
Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted in 159 participants with diagnosis of arterial hypertension or/and diabetes mellitus type 2 plus polypharmacy. Participants were divided in two groups and strategies: Group A: educational (n = 79) and Group B social/family support (n = 80), follow up three months for each group. For group "A", informative group workshops were assigned; while for group "B" therapeutic agreements were established. Adherence to treatment pre- and post-intervention were evaluated using the four item Morisky Green Levine scale of public domain. At the end of the intervention period, an intra and intergroup analysis were performed and a Z test for difference in proportions was applied; the RR was used as a measure of association, and Chi2 as a measure of significance.
Results: A total of 152 patients complete the intervention. In group A, pre-intervention non-adherence was 58.2%, post-intervention of 45.3% and final reduction of the failure was 12.9% (p<0,001). In group B, pre-intervention non-adherence was 55%, post-intervention 46.8%, and final reduction of adherence failure of 8.2%, (p> 0.05). Statistically significant difference was obtained between the decrease in the failure reached after the application of the educational strategy compared to social / family support strategy (p = 0.001).
Conclusions: Educational strategy is more effective than social/family support strategy, to reduce the failure of therapeutic adherence. There was not association of sociodemographic factors and adherence to treatment.