¶ … Medication of Multiple Sclerosis This study aimed to calculate the prevalence of adherence to therapy among multiple sclerosis patients in King Khalid University Hospital, in addition to find the relationship between adherence to therapy among multiple sclerosis patients and some important factors.

Studies on adherence to medication of multiple sclerosis provide important data about patient adhering to their medications with respect to the patient medication-taking behavior, factoring in the different demographic characteristics. In turn, this helps future planning on how to make certain that multiple sclerosis patients adhere to medication and treatment advised to them. The demographic characteristics taken into consideration in the case study include age, gender, level of education, employment status, marital status, income level, and residence. The data is analyzed in terms of making a comparison between low adherence and high adherence to medication by using these particular demographic characteristics as differentiators (Koskderelioglu et al., 2015).

The results of this study indicated no significant differences between low and high adherence according to age groups, gender, educational levels, job, marital status, income, and place of residence among patients in King Khalid University Hospital in Saudi Arabia. To begin with, there is low significant difference between low adherence and high adherence with respect to age groups. This finding may be explained by the fact that the average age of those studied is 32 years. What is more, all the patients are above the age of 16 years, which implies that they are old enough to be ignorant or not to be interested in adhering to their medication. This observation is consistent with that appearing in literature, which indicates that there is no correlation between adherence to medication and the age of both male and female patients (Jin et al., 2008). The results of this study indicated no significant differences between low and high adherence according to gender. This can be explained by the fact that literature indicates that there is no correlation. However, a key aspect to take into consideration is that the population sample includes individuals from Saudi Arabia, 70% of which are female. In particular,...

Sensibly, having to live under the war and the unstable situation might cause/force the women patients to discontinue their treatment and weaken the adherence to medication because of the low desire in living.
The results also indicate no significant differences between low and high adherence with respect to educational levels. This finding may be explained by the fact that only 12 patients out of the 100 participants have yet to attain high school education. However, in general, this finding is not necessarily consistent with the literature that indicates adherence to medication and treatment to be lower in the groups and participants in even those with higher levels of education. However, it is imperative to note that literature states that the level education of the patient is not a strong indicator or predictor. The study also indicates no significant correlation between low and high adherence with respect to marital status. In particular, 44% of the patients were single, 48% of them were married, while the remaining 8% were divorced and widowed. These results do not seem to agree with the observations that appear in literature, which suggests that unmarried individuals stand a higher risk for treatment and medication nonadherence compared to individuals who are married (Wu et al., 2012).

Results of the study also indicate no significant differences between low and high adherence with respect to the employment status of the participating patients. In this case, majority of the patients were unemployed forming 61%, 33% of them employed, and the remaining patients retired. This result does not agree with that in the literature. This is largely because literature indicates that there is a positive correlation between employment and adherence to medication. It is believed that individuals with employment are educated and therefore have knowledge of the significance of adhering to medication recommended; secondly, employment is linked to income and therefore patients are able to afford and purchase the medication recommended as and when needed (Katsarava et al., 2015).

Further, there is an indication of no significant difference between low and high adherence with respect to the level of income of the participants. However, this particular outcome is not similar to literature that indicates that factors of level of income, together with knowledge correlated with adherence significantly. In particular, according to Shehadeh-Sheeny et al. (2013), women that have attained higher levels of knowledge and perceived income level were more adherent with medication and treatment recommendations in comparison to women that have lower levels of knowledge and perceived income. This is largely because with a higher level of income, the patients are able to afford the treatment and medication required for multiple sclerosis, which improves their accessibility. However, in this case, the outcome…