Health Psychology Report (Mar 2023)

Psychosocial and behavioral correlates of self-efficacy in treatment adherence in older patients with comorbid hypertension and type 2 diabetes

  • Antonia Pierobon,
  • Francesco Zanatta,
  • Nicolò Granata,
  • Ekaterina Nissanova,
  • Jacek Polański,
  • Wojciech Tański,
  • Giovanna Callegari,
  • Angelo Caporotondi,
  • Chiara Ferretti,
  • Beata Jankowska-Polańska

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5114/hpr/159284
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 3
pp. 188 – 199

Abstract

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Background Adhering to clinical prescriptions is known to protect against the effects of uncontrolled hypertension and of acute and chronic cardiovascular diseases, including diabetes. Contextually, positive associations between self-care behaviors and psychological constructs, such as self-efficacy, are widely acknowledged in the literature. However, still little is known about the psychological factors underlying the patient’s self-efficacy. This study aimed to investigate the psychosocial and behavioral correlates of self-efficacy related to treatment adherence in older patients with comorbid hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Participants and procedure Italian and Polish patients (≥ 65 years; N = 180) consecutively responded to self-report questionnaires measuring psycho-social (i.e., beliefs about medicines, perceived physician’s communication effectiveness, medication-specific social sup-port, self-efficacy) and behavioral factors (i.e., pharmacological adherence, medications refill adherence, intentional non-adherence) related to treatment adherence. Between-group comparisons and regression analyses were performed. Results Fisher’s least significant difference (LSD) test showed significant differences between the Italian and Polish groups in all questionnaires (p < .01) with the Italian patients reporting more satisfactory scores. Younger age (β = .08, p = .045), female gender (β = 1.03, p = .042), higher medication refills adherence (β = –.07, p = .024), lower intentional non-adherence (β = –.03, p = .009), positive beliefs about medications (β = .13, p < .001), better quality of communication with the physician (β = .09, p < .001), and stronger perceived medication-specific social support (β = .06, p = .001) were significantly associat-ed with self-efficacy related to treatment adherence. Conclusions Future research and interventions should leverage psychosocial and behavioral factors to address self-efficacy contributing to enhancing adherence to clinical prescriptions.

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