Article Sidebar
Article Details
Copyright remains in the Author’s name. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial Works License. Authors are required to complete and sign an Author Agreement form that outlines Author and Publisher rights and terms of publication. The Agreement form should be uploaded along with other submissions files and any submission will be considered incomplete without it [forthcoming].
Material submitted for publication in the SAMJ is accepted provided it has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Please inform the editorial team if the main findings of your paper have been presented at a conference and published in abstract form, to avoid copyright infringement. The SAMJ does not hold itself responsible for statements made by the authors.
Previously published images
If an image/figure has been previously published, permission to reproduce or alter it must be obtained by the authors from the original publisher and the figure legend must give full credit to the original source. This credit should be accompanied by a letter indicating that permission to reproduce the image has been granted to the author/s. This letter should be uploaded as a supplementary file during submission.
Main Article Content
Compliance in black patients with non-insulindependent diabetes mellitus receiving oral hypoglycaemic therapy
Abstract
Poor compliance with drug therapy is an important cause of therapeutic failure. Sixty-eight black patients with non-insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus receiving oral hypoglycaemic agents were interviewed and various factors, such as age, sex, degree of control and type of therapy, were recorded by means of a questionnaire. Compliance was determined by qualitatively assessing urine for the presence of the drugs. An alarmingly high incidence of non-compliance of 65% was found, which could still be an under-estimation because of the long half-life of one of the drugs involved - chlorpropamide. Although interesting trends were noted, no statistically significant differences between compliant and non-compliant patients were found. In the light of the high incidence of non-compliance, a larger and more detailed study seems to be warranted to identify problem areas and to plan appropriate interventions.
