Assessment of adherence to drug treatment and affecting factors among hypertensive patients

Abstract

Introduction: Adherence to antihypertensive therapy isimportant for blood pressure control. Poor adherence to antihypertensive drugtherapy leads to the development of hypertensive complications and increaserisk of cardiovascular events. The aim of this study was to assess adherence toantihypertensive drug therapy and associated factors among hypertensivepatients.Methods: A cross-sectional study wasconducted on a simple random sample of 242 patients at the Family HealthCenter. Adherence to antihypertensive treatment was assessed using the TurkishModified Morisky Scale (TMMS). The factors affecting the adherence to treatmentwere obtained with a sociodemographic questionnaire. Blood pressures of allparticipants were measured from both arms and the mean values were recorded.Results: The mean age of the 242 participants was60.95 ± 12.54 years. Mean systolic blood pressures of the participants were139.08±20.78 mmHg and mean diastolic blood pressures were 83.63±11.88 mmHg.Adherence to antihypertensive medication was found 76.9% (non-adherence totreatment was 23.1%) and 75.6% of the participants had sufficient knowledge antihypertensivetreatment.Conclusions: We found numbers of drugs taken daily,level of knowledge about treatment and level of education to be the strongestfactors affecting adherence to anti-hypertensive medication among our patients.We also found that high adherence to treatment is important for effective bloodpressure control. Health workers' questioning the adherence to antihypertensivedrug therapy may provide more effective blood pressure control in hypertensivepatients.

Keywords

• hipertansiyon
• antihipertansif tedavi
• tedaviye uyum
• hypertension
• adherence to treatment
• antihypertensive therapy