Knowledge, awareness, and determinants of medication adherence in hypertensive patients: A hospital-based cross-sectional study in North India

Abstract

Background: Knowledge and awareness studies reveal the basic information of the community and the misconceptions in relation to practices of a disease. The identification of such factors is important as they directly influence the health care-related interventions. Hypertension is one of the emerging noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) globally. So, we conducted this study to assess the status of our community regarding hypertension. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 300 hypertensive patients to assess the knowledge and awareness by a hypertension fact questionnaire. Medication adherence was assessed in the same group of patients by Hill–Bone scale—a uniform scale used worldwide. Results: Our study revealed a greater number of females with hypertension as compared to males and a maximum number of patients being in the age-group of 61–70 years and belonging to rural areas. Most of the patients had a secondary education as a highest educational qualification with only 10% of patients being postgraduates. A fair number of patients had a good knowledge and awareness about their disease, and most of the respondents accounted forgetfulness as a main reason for nonadherence to therapy over other reasons. Conclusion: Our population has good knowledge and awareness about their disease despite not having very good educational qualifications, and we need to strengthen our healthcare programs for even more greater dissemination of information.

Keywords

• awareness
• hill–bone scale
• hypertension