Table 3.

Key findings

Key findings
Study design		Number of study participants
✓ 73 cross-sectional studies		✓ 67 studies with fewer than 500 participants
✓ 23 cohort studies		✓ 18 studies with more than 500 participants but less than 5000
✓ 5 experimental studies		✓ 17 studies with more than 5000 participants
✓ and 1 case–control study
Continent		Type of treatment
✓ 15 in Africa		✓ 72 studies investigated all types of medication used in T2DMa
✓ 42 in Asia		✓ 26 studies investigated oral antidiabetic medication
✓ 4 in South America,		✓ 4 studies investigated insulin
✓ 1 in Central America
✓ 29 in North America
✓ 5 in Europe
✓ 6 in Oceania

Type of socioeconomic factor	Economic and social factors	Ethnical and geographical factors
✓ Economic [61]	✓ Socioeconomic status	✓ Ethnicity/race
✓ Social [74]	✓ Occupational status	✓ Country of birth
✓ Ethnical/racial [19]	✓ Income	✓ Acculturation
✓ Geographical [18]	✓ Housing type	✓ Accessibility to healthcare
	✓ Insurance status	✓ Area of residence
	✓ Economic support	✓ Regional differences
	✓ Transportation availability
	✓ Civil status
	✓ Living arrangement
	✓ Education
	✓ Caste
	✓ Religion
	✓ Family support (social)

Conclusions
✓ The majority of studies found an association with antidiabetic medication adherence for two specific factors: insurance status [10] and ethnicity or race [18]
✓ Other important factors were income and education
✓ These factors may be taken into consideration when recommending treatments to patients and designing interventions to increase adherence

^aT2DM: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus