OBJECTIVES: To assess the patient's adherence to diabetic medications using 8-item Morisky medication adherence scale (MMAS) and to evaluate the association between patients' adherence and the diabetic control outcome.  METHODS: A convenience sample of 223 type 2 diabetic outpatients was identified between May and September, 2009 from the Penang General Hospital, Penang, Malaysia. Patients who had taken oral antidiabetic medications with or without insulin were eligible for the research. Eight-item MMAS was used to assess medication adherence. Medical records were reviewed for Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) levels and other relevant clinical data.   RESULTS: Based on the inclusion criteria, only 175 were included in the final analysis. Employing the recommended method of scoring, the mean ± SD of MMAS scores was 6.13 ± 1.72 in which 38% were low, 44% were medium and only 17% were in high adherence group. Significant differences in educational levels, HbA1c levels, number of medications per day, MMAS scores among the three groups (p <0.05). No significant differences have been found in age, sex, BMI, race, employment and diabetic duration among the three groups of adherence (p ≥0.05). MMAS scores correlates significantly with HbA1c (-0.431 P<0.01).  CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that the short, easily administered 8-item MMAS is a useful tool for measuring medication adherence in diabetic patients. This study found that patients with lower score of MMAS had a higher HbA1c. The present study suggested that MMAS can be used for identifying type 2 diabetes patients with poor adherence to their medications.