An Analytical Assessment of Medication Adherence among Patients with Hypertension

Hypertension is one of the major health problems in many countries. Medicinal treatments and lifestyle modification have so far failed to effectively influence blood pressure control. One of the main reasons behind such inefficiency is the poor adherence of patients to anti-hypertensive therapy regimen. Hence, this study intended to analytically assess the medication adherence among hypertensive patients in Zahedan during 2015. This was a descriptive, analytical, cross-sectional study. The population consisted of all health centers and doctors’ offices for internal medicine and heart diseases based in Zahedan. The sample included a total of 400 hypertensive patients who were selected through convenient sampling. Data were collected through a medication adherence questionnaire for hypertensive patients. Moreover, the findings were analyzed through the Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test as well as descriptive statistics including frequency and frequency percentage. Based on the results, there was a significant difference between the mean values of medication adherence among skeptical, uninterested, hesitant and accepting. Furthermore, the mean of medication adherence among the subjects was 15.26±3.48 (a scale ranging from score 9 (full adherence) up to 36), suggestive of moderate medication adherence regimen. Additionally, there was a significant relationship between demographic characteristics of hypertensive patients and the medication adherence scores. Overall, the results suggested that there is moderate medication adherence in this population unlike most other populations. This can provide an opportunity for nurses, health care administrators etc. to take improvement measures in the treatment of hypertensive patients.