Background. Medication adherence and belief are crucial to achieving the desired goal of therapy in epileptic patients. However, there is a lack of study regarding medication adherence and belief in our setting. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate medication adherence and belief and associated factors among ambulatory patients with epilepsy. Method. A cross-sectional study was conducted on randomly selected epileptic patients at the neurologic clinic of Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia. Medication adherence and belief were assessed using self-reported questionnaires which were developed based on the review of different literatures. Data were analyzed using binary logistic regression analysis. Result. We included a total of 292 patients. Almost two-thirds (65.4%) of the patients were nonadherent to their medications. The most common cause of nonadherence was forgetfulness (48.7%) followed by inability to get medicine (28.8) and safety concern (23.5%). The majority (78.4%) of the patients had high medication necessity belief while 44.1% had high concern belief about the potential adverse effect of their medications. Overall, 39.4% of the patients had a negative belief toward their medications. Comorbidity (AOR: 3.51, 95% CI: 1.20-10.31), seizure encounter within the last 3 months (AOR: 5.45, 95% CI: 2.48-12.00), low medication necessity belief (AOR: 3.38, 95% CI: 1.14-10.00), high medication concern belief (AOR: 4.23, 95% CI: 2.07-8.63), and negative medication belief (AOR: 4.17, 95% CI: 1.74-10.02) were predictors of medication nonadherence. Conclusion. Majority of the epileptic patients were nonadherent to their medications, and more than one-third of the patients had a negative medication belief. Low medication necessity belief, high medication concern belief, negative medication belief, comorbidity, and seizure encounter were predictors of medication nonadherence. Therefore, healthcare providers should design educational programs to enhance the patients’ believe about their medication in order to improve medication adherence and overall treatment outcome.

中文翻译：

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癫痫患者的药物信念和依从性。

背景。药物依从性和信念对于癫痫患者实现预期治疗目标至关重要。然而，在我们的环境中缺乏关于药物依从性和信念的研究。因此，本研究的目的是调查门诊癫痫患者的药物依从性和信念以及相关因素。方法。对埃塞俄比亚艾德综合专科医院神经科诊所随机选择的癫痫患者进行了一项横断面研究。使用根据不同文献的回顾而制定的自我报告问卷来评估药物依从性和信念。使用二元逻辑回归分析来分析数据。结果。我们总共纳入了 292 名患者。近三分之二（65.4%）的患者不坚持服药。不依从的最常见原因是健忘（48.7%），其次是无法获得药物（28.8）和安全问题（23.5%）。大多数（78.4%）患者对用药必要性抱有高度信念，而44.1%则对其药物的潜在不良反应抱有高度担忧信念。总体而言，39.4% 的患者对其药物持负面信念。合并症（AOR：3.51，95% CI：1.20-10.31）、过去 3 个月内癫痫发作（AOR：5.45，95% CI：2.48-12.00）、药物必要性信念较低（AOR：3.38，95% CI：1.14） -10.00）、高药物关注信念（AOR：4.23，95％CI：2.07-8.63）和消极药物信念（AOR：4.17，95％CI：1.74-10.02）是药物不依从的预测因素。结论。大多数癫痫患者不遵守药物治疗，超过三分之一的患者对药物治疗持消极态度。低药物必要性信念、高药物关注信念、消极药物信念、合并症和癫痫发作是药物不依从性的预测因素。因此，医疗保健提供者应设计教育计划来增强患者对其药物的信心，以提高药物依从性和整体治疗结果。