Title: The Impact of COVID-19 on Treatment Follow-up and Medication Adherence among Patients with Epilepsy at a referral Hospital in Ethiopia
Summary
The world is continued to be challenged by Corona Virus-19 Disease (COVID-19) and the preventive measures like maintaining social distancing and lockdowns challenge patients to attend regular follow-ups and get a refill for medication that cause adherence problem. Hence, this study attempts to assess the impact of COVID-19 on treatment follow-up and medication adherence among patients with epilepsy.
Method
A total of 276 patients with epilepsy were recruited by systematic random sampling. Data collection was conducted by medical record review and patient interview. Patients who have visited to Zewditu Memorial Hospital from August to September 2021 patients who had follow-up for at least two years before the start of the pandemic were included. The data was analyzed by SPSS v.24.
Result
About 69.6% of patients were adherent to their treatment and 83.3% of the patients had a seizure-free period of less than 1 year. Ninety (32.6%) of the participants had missed their treatment follow-up during the pandemic mainly due to fear of being infected with COVID-19. Sixty eight (24.6%) patients have experienced increased seizure episodes during the pandemic compared to previous times. Moreover, 56(20.3%) participants were not taking their antiepileptic drugs during the pandemic because of unavailability of medications and stop visiting hospital for medication refills. Among those who missed their treatment follow-up, 20% had seizure-related physical injuries. Participants who completed college and above (AOR =2.58, 95% CI (1.32-6.38)) were more likely to attend their follow up during the pandemics as compared to participants who can’t read and write.
Conclusion
The present study indicates that COVID-19 has an impact on treatment follow up and medication adherence due to fear of getting infection, travel restrictions and the indirect impact on availability and affordability of medications. These lead to poor treatment outcome like increased seizure frequency and increase seizure related physical injuries.