Prevalence and Barriers to Treatment Compliance and Its Determinants among Ill Secondary School Students

Compliance and adherence to medication which requires an individual to complete their medication for an illness without skipping doses is an issue for patients. This research is a secondary school-based study to determine the prevalence and barriers to medication compliance and its determinants among students with acute illness in Elele, Ikwerre Local Government Area, Rivers State, Nigeria. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. The study was conducted in Adventist Comprehensive High School (ACHS) Elele, Ikwerre LGA, a semi urban area of Rivers state, between July-August 2021. Using a purposive sampling technique, 104 students met the inclusion criteria. The instrument for data collection is a standardized univariate questionnaire called Morisky Medication Adherence Scale that is normally used to measure the level of compliance to medication. Data collected were presented in frequencies and percentages in tables, pie charts and bar charts using Microsoft Excel 2016 Version. Data were analysed using bivariate analysis (Chi-square test/Fisher’s Exact test) to test for association between socio-demographic factors and medication adherence (Compliance) at 95% CI. Result from the study showed that 88.5% of patients had low compliance while, only 11.5% showed moderate to high compliance to medication among patients attending ACHS Clinic. Similarly, the reasons for intentionally low adherence to medication included; studying, unpleasant taste of the drug, fear of taking too many drugs and absent health worker in the sick bay, while, forgetfulness was the key reason for unintentional low compliance. Also, snacking was a common habit among low adherent students (about 78%). Low compliance to prescribed medications amongst the students was observed to be high due to studying, unpleasant taste of medication, fear of taking too many drugs, unavailability of health worker in sick bay and forgetfulness among secondary school students presenting for treatment with acute illness. Hence, medications with pleasant tastes, few drugs yet effective for presented illness and employment of a school stationed health worker are advised. Also, notice should be passed to the student’s parents/guardian to supervise the compliance of students to medication at home. Finally, supervision both in school and at home is a leeway to improving medication compliance.