Background: Adherence to anti epileptic medication is a primary determinant of treatment outcome. Non-adherence to the treatment attenuates most clinical benefits and reduces the overall effectiveness the treatment. This study assessed antiepileptic drug adherence and associated factors among Adult Epileptic Patients in Adama Hospital Medical College.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional hospital based study on epileptic patients above 18 years old who were on antiepileptic medications attending Neurology Referral Clinic.. Adherence was measured using the four-item Morisky’s medication adherence scale. We collected patient demography, clinical data, drug intake and adherence. Both Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to test for associations. Odds ratio was calculated, and level strength of association was determined by p. value <0.05%.

Result: Among 322, 109 (56.2%) were males. The mean age was 32.10 ± 7.37 years; ranges from 18-56 years. The majority was 61.4% in those taking single AED. 67.3% (95% CI: 62.9%, 71.9%) were adherent to AED. The most common reasons for non-adherence were financial or cost of drugs 39.01, and distance 38.5%. Significant associated Factors for poor adherence were: being female (AOR=2.04, 95% CI=1.07, 3.87), primary education (AOR= 2.74, 95% CI= 1.01, 7.46), marriage (AOR= 3.65, 95% CI= 1.34, 9.89) cost of the drugs 500 to 999 birr (AOR= 2.59, 95% CI= 1.03, 6.45) and long distance (AOR= 5.14, 95% CI= 2.49, 10.61).

Conclusion: Only 67.2% were adherent to AED which is very low compared with the standard adherence