Introduction: This descriptive study aimed to determine the adherence of patients that had undergone kidney transplant to immunosuppressive therapy and the affecting factors. Methods: The study group comprised 116 patients that were treated at the TRNC Dr. Burhan Nalbantoğlu State Hospital's Nephrology Polyclinic. The data were collected with the "Patient Characteristics Form" and "Immunosuppressant Therapy Adherence Scale" (ITAS). Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and number-percentage tests were used for the statistical evaluation of the data. Results: Of the participants, 77% received kidney from living donors, 57% used 5-6 medications per day, 99% expressed that they used their medications regularly, and 96% stated that they used the medications without any help. Furthermore, 89% of the patients were aware of side effects of medications whereas 41% used reminders for medication use. Of the donors, 43.8% were parents or siblings of the participants. The average total ITAS score of the participants was 11.49±0.78. We did not find any statically significant relationship between the ITAS scores of the patients and their sociodemographic characteristics (p<0.05). However, we found a negative and statistically significant correlation between ITAS scores and the duration of the post-transplant period (r=-0.221; p>0.05). Discussion and Conclusion: This study determined that drug compliance was not complete (8-12 points) in patients receiving immunosuppressive treatment with renal transplantation, and the compliance with the drug decreased as the time from transplantation elapsed. Although we did not find any statistically significant relationship between medication adherence and the potential factors that may influence medication adherence, we believe that we found clinically meaningful findings.
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