Objective:

To determine the prevalence of adherence to the medical treatment of people with diabetes mellitus enrolled in a program of hypertension and diabetes; to relate the adherence to the variables: sex, age, diagnosis time, presence of complications, type of diabetes, family history, schooling, individual income, knowledge, attitude of coping with the disease.

Methods:

Quantitative, observational, analytical, cross-sectional study. People with diabetes mellitus enrolled in a hypertension and diabetes program were invited to participate, constituting a convenience sample with 141 participants. Data collection was performed from January to July 2014, in the Basic Health Units of the urban area of the municipality. Four questionnaires were used: sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire, Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire, Diabetes Attitude Questionnaire, Measure of Adherence to Treatments. Data analysis employed simple descriptive statistics, bivariate, multivariate analysis (linear and logistic regression).

Results:

The prevalence of drug treatment adherence was 90.8%, despite the low knowledge (71.6%) and unresponsive attitudes (50.4%). There was a correlation between adherence and the attitude of coping with the disease (p = 0.049), inferring that positive attitudes predisposes to greater adherence to treatment.

Conclusion:

The results of this research indicate that people with diabetes showed good adherence to drug treatment, although they have presented low knowledge about diabetes and little positive coping attitudes. However, the statistical correlation indicates that positive attitudes predispose to greater adherence to treatment. There was no correlation between adherence and the other variables.

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