Introduction:

Epilepsy in the pediatric population is an entity that mostly affects underdeveloped countries. In Ecuador, hospital admissions due to poor control are increasing and the main cause is poor adherence to antiepileptic treatment.

Objective:

To demonstrate the incidence of nonadherence to the antiepileptic regimen and determine the factors that contributes to it.

Materials and methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted in which 119 patients were included with ages between 6 months and 17 years. The parents or legal guardians were questioned regarding the degree of adherence to antiepileptic treatment using the Morisky questionnaire. A logistic regression model was used to measure the strength of association between variables.

Results:

An incidence of non-adherence to antiepileptic treatment of 36.97% was found. The significantly associated variables were the mother's schooling (x2=11.83, IC= 10.13 - 13.53, p=0.018), previous medical information (x2=9.35, IC= 7.95 - 10.75, p=0.02) and the failure to obtain medication due to lack of money (x2=5.98, IC= 5.29 - 6.67, p=0.01).

Conclusion:

The incidence of nonadherence in this study was high; control over sociodemographic factors and related to treatment can have a great impact on these patients.