Background The record of Rayong Hospital’s Tapong branch between October 2015 – September 2016 showed that there were 399 patients with HbA1C≥8 mg% and a mean 14.72% among total patients. The hospital team discovered this problem and created the programme to educate patients and consult them case-by-case.

Purpose The aim of this study was to assess medication adherence and knowledge of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients upon completion of the proposed programme.

Material and methods This study was conducted from November 2016 – August 2017 and obtained IRB from the Rayong Hospital. The questionaires were using for evaluating medication adherence and knowledge by pretest-post-test design. There were 30 purposively selected patients. The education programme was developed by the hospital team which contained topic pathology of type 2 DM, medication management, the important of medication, side effects, ADR, management of drug-related problems and diet control.

The process of the programme was that at first visit, patients came to consult a doctor at the Rayong Hospital, Tapong branch. If patients had HbA1C≥8 mg%, the staff asked them to join the programme. When patients came to the pharmacy department, pharmacists gave them a pre-test, dispensing medicine and advice.The second visit was class education. On the third visit, patients saw the doctor again. After that, the pharmacist gave them the post-test.

Results When comparing the pre-test and post-test medication adherence levels among those patients with high medication adherence scores, 53.33% of patients had improved significantly. When comparing the pre-test and post-test knowledge levels among those patients with high knowledge scores, 73.33% of patients had improved significantly. After attending the programme, patients had improved their medication adherence and knowledge statistically significantly (p<0.01). The patients’ HbA1C values reduced 2.72% on average after attending the programme, so this study can reduce their HbA1C clinically significantly.

Conclusion This study result shows that medication adherence and knowledge of patients is effect to HbA1C control. Pharmacists’ intervention can help patients understand their pathology and medication management, and can improve their medication adherence and contribute to increased blood-sugar control.

References and/or acknowledgements This research was advised by Dr Benjarath Pupacdi Javed, the Chulabhorn Research Institute and Ms Chonticha Ponchai, Na Tung Mang School.

No conflict of interest.