Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract NACNDC/19JASH00027 (Oral) | Published: 08 Dec 2025
Ronald Kibirige1,&, Marianna Agaba Nyangire2, Mark Kaddumukasa3, Aggrey David Mukose1
1Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University. P.O. BOX 7072, Kampala, Uganda, 2Department of Disease Control and Prevention, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University. P.O.BOX 7072, Kampala, Uganda, 3Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University. P.O. Box 7072, Kampala, Uganda
Received: 15 Sep 2025, Accepted: 20 Oct 2025, Published: 08 Dec 2025
Domain: Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: Adherence, Anti-seizure medications, Community-based epilepsy clinic, immediate care provider, patient with epilepsy
©Ronald Kibirige et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Ronald Kibirige et al. Adherence to anti-seizure medications among patients with epilepsy attending a community-based epilepsy clinic in Buikwe and Mukono districts, Uganda: A mixed methods study. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc6):00027. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO6-00027
Epilepsy is a common neurological disease especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Medication adherence is key in seizure control; however, majority of patients have poor adherence to anti- seizure medications. In this study, we determined the prevalence, factors associated with and experiences on adherence to anti-seizure medications among patients with epilepsy attending a community- based epilepsy clinic in central-Uganda.
In this cross-sectional mixed methods study 277 participants were enrolled while 20 in-depth interviews were conducted from April to July 2024. Using a structured questionnaire, socio-demographics and treatment related details were collected. Medication adherence was determined using a standardized Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8). Modified Poisson regression was used, and unadjusted and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) at 95% confidence intervals determined with p-values of less than 0.05 were considered significant.
The overall prevalence of adherence to anti-seizure medications was 66.7%. Adherence was defined as 6 to 8 scores as per the MMAS-8. Factors associated with adherence to anti-seizure medications were: Earning a modest monthly income (aPR 1.29: CI 1.13-1.52), Receiving inadequate treatment dosage (aPR 0.80: 95% CI 0.64-0.92), waiting for three or more hours (aPR 0.79: 95% CI 0.61-0.91) and being 30 to 34 years (aPR 0.71: CI 0.53-0.95). The key themes on experiences to adherence to anti-seizure medications were fear of stigmatisation, injury and loss of life, social support, financial burden, individual motivation, misconception about ASMs and lack of awareness on the effectiveness of anti-seizure medications.
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