Prevalence of medication adherence among adult asthmatic patients in four African countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Non-adherence to medications has many deleterious effects including poor treatment outcomes, increased economic burden, increased morbidity, hospitalization rate, health care utilization, productivity loss, and mortality.

Therefore, this review aimed to estimate the pooled prevalence of medication adherence among asthmatic adults in 4 African countries.

Primary studies were extensively searched from databases such as PubMed, HINARI, Cochrane Library, CINHALand, Google Scholar, and Google search engines.

After screening and assessing the quality of studies, data were extracted using a checklist.

Heterogeneity was assessed using forest plot, Chocran's Q Test and I(2).

The random effects meta-analysis model was employed to pool the prevalence of medication adherence among adult asthmatic patients in Africa.

Sub-group analysis and meta-regression were performed to identify the sources of heterogeneity.

Publication bias was assessed using funnel plots with Egger's test.

A sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the influence of individual studies on the overall estimate.

The review was performed among 16 studies of which 14 were cross-sectional with a total of 4019 participants.

The pooled random effects prevalence of adherence to medications among adult patients with asthma in Africa was 39% (95% CI: 32, 47; p < 0.001) with a heterogeneity (I(2) = 94.82, p < 0.001).

The pooled prevalence of medication adherence among adult asthmatic patients in Africa is low.

Researchers should conduct further multicenter longitudinal studies by using objective methods of adherence measurement.