Adherence to Anti-Epileptic Drugs and Associated Factors among Children with Epilepsy Attending Pediatrics Neurology Follow Up Clinic of Jimma Medical Center, South West Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Childhood epilepsy causes a tremendous burden for the child, the family, society as well as the healthcare system. Adherence to anti-epileptic drugs(AEDs) is a key to treatment success. Poor adherence has been considered as one of the main causes of unsuccessful treatment for epilepsy and presents a potential ongoing challenge for achieving a key therapeutic goal of seizure control. Objective: This study aimed to assess adherence to antiepileptic drugs and associated factors among children with epilepsy attending the Pediatrics neurology follow up clinic of Jimma Medical Center, Ethiopia. Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among children with epilepsy attending the Pediatrics neurology follow up clinic of Jimma Medical Center from June- 21 to September- 20, 2021. Data were collected by using a semi-structured pre- tested questionnaire. Epi data version 3.1 and SPSS version 26.0 were used for data entry and for analysis respectively. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regresion analysis were employed. Adjusted odds ratios were used to ascertain effect sizes for any association between the dependent and associated variables while significance level at p-value of <0.05 was determined using 95% confidence intervals. Result: A total of 170 children with epilepsy were included in this study. About 54.7% were male and 44.7% were in age range of 10-17 years. Among the study participants included, the overall adherence to anti-epileptic drugs was 54.1%. Those caregivers who were married[AOR=7.46 (95% CI= 1.46, 38.20)], those with controlled seizure status[AOR= 3.64 (95% CI= 1.51, 8.78)], those who got appropriate health care[AOR= 7.08(95% CI= 2.91, 17.24)], those caregivers who had good knowledge[AOR= 5.20(95% CI= 2.60,14.83)] and positive attitude[AOR= 2.57 (95% CI= 1.06, 6.28)] were significantly associated with adherence to AEDs.Conclusions: More than half of the children/adolescents having epilepsy were adherent to their anti-epileptic medication(s). In addition, children‟s adherence to AEDs was influenced by different factors such as current marital status of the parents/caregivers, V controlled seizure status, not facing problems in the hospital during health care delivery, caregiver‟s knowledge and attitude towards epilepsy. Recommedations: More efforts are required to scale up the provision of client-centred service to encourage children/adolescents with epilepsy to be adherent to their medication(s). Further, a deep and well-designed study that includes a quantitative and qualitative approach is recommended to address other hidden factors that are associated with adherence to AEDs