Medication adherence is a significant factor contributing towards the achievement of treatment goals. This study was conducted to provide insight into the medication adherence behaviour of private sector patients afflicted with communicable and non-communicable chronic diseases.\r\nObjectives\r\nTo investigate the medication adherence behaviour of patients suffering from Non-Communicable diseases and Communicable diseases in the private health care sector of the eThekwini Metropolitan of KwaZulu-Natal. \r\nMethods \r\nA self-reported medication adherence questionnaire was used to obtain data, from 233 patients afflicted with Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension and Dyslipidaemia. The questionnaire focused on factors that influence medication adherence as well as the number of days of medication missed during the last 30 days. Data was collected and analysed using SPSS .\r\nResults \r\nMajority of participants were aged between 41-60 years (49.8%), and were of male gender (52.8%). An almost equal number of participants were afflicted with single disease (n=116) or multiple diseases (117). Hypertension was the most prevalent ailment (n=167), followed by Type 2 Diabetes (n=113), Dyslipidaemia (n=94) and HIV (n= 26). Over 62% of participants reported not missing any medication during the last 30 days. More than 21% had stated missing 1-2 days of their medication and 15.9% reported missing 3 or more days of medication during the last 30 days. With regards to single diagnosis, the highest percentage of adherence was reported in participants afflicted with Hypertension (60.6%), and Type 2 diabetes (58.3%). HIV and Dyslipidaemia had the lowest rates of adherence as 45% (n=9) of HIV only afflicted participants and 57.1% (n=4) of Dyslipidaemia only afflicted participants reported missing 1 or more days of their medication. The highest rate of non-adherence was found in the age group of participants 51-60 years old, while the highest rate of adherence was found in the group aged 70 years+. Reasons for non-adherence included cost, forgetting to take medication, running out of medication, stopping medication because it made them feel worse or gave a side effect and having difficulty with time schedules or having medication with/without food. \r\nConclusion\r\nParticipants afflicted with communicable and non-communicable diseases in the private health care sector have sub-optimal medication adherence. No significant correlations were found between having a particular disease and the rate of adherence, but participants afflicted with HIV only and Dyslipidaemia only where the least adherent. Reasons for non-adherence were the similar to other studies.

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