Compliance to Antihypertensive treatment among Hypertensive Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Compliance to Antihypertensive treatment among Hypertensive Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: high prevalence of  hypertension is posing a great threat to the health of the community, with lack of compliance to prescribed medicine worsening the situation.

Objective: To assess the compliance of the hypertensive patients to the treatment prescribed by the physician.

Methods: This observational cross-sectional research was conducted at a tertiary care hospital named Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan. All patients fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria who presented in medical OPD from June 2023 to July 2023 were inducted in the study. Predesigned questionnaires were used for getting data from the patients. The study subjects were  hypertensive patients who attended outpatient department of the Medical unit of the hospital. The subjects included were at least 20 years and above using antihypertensive drugs for at least 6 months. Convenient non-probable sampling technique was used for sample selection. The questionnaire included information regarding sociodemographic status of the participants, and to assess compliance with antihypertensive therapy. The data were collected and analyzed by using SPSS version 23.

Results: Overall a total of 190 hypertension patients were included in study. Out of 190 study subjects in this study, 88 (46.31%)  were found to be compliant with their antihypertensive drug treatments, while 102 (53.69%) persons were found to be noncompliant. High cost of the medicines (p=0.04) and forgetfulness (p=0.05) were significantly predicting the noncompliance to antihypertensive treatment

Conclusion: This study showed that level of compliance with antihypertensive medication was poor in more than half of the hypertensive patients.  The significant predictors of noncompliance were forgetfulness, and high cost of medicine.