Evaluation of compliance to steroid use in inpatients of a university hospital

Objectives: In order to maximize the benefits from steroids, patients should understand treatment with this drug. The aim of this study was to investigate inpatients’ compliance to steroid treatment.Materials and methods: This study was carried out from April to June 2005 on a total voluntary 118 inpatients in internal medicine clinics of a university hospital. The data were collected using by a questionnaire form and data analysis was performed using frequency tables and chi−square tests.Results: The mean age of the subjects was 48.94±14.72 years and 70.3% of them was female. With regard of educational status, 44.9% of patients were elementary school graduates. A total of 45.8% reported that they had received information about steroids from a health professional. Although 99.2% - 94.6% of subjects knew the correct drug scheduling, only 52.5% knew how to calculate steroid dose. Additionally majority of them (83.1%) did not know side effects of drug and prevention from their side effects.Conclusion: According to our results, patients using steroid did not have sufficient information for adherence to this drug therapy and the patients experienced various problems. In order to relieve these problems, the patients should be better trained about steroid therapy by health professionals.