Antihypertensive medication adherence among hypertensive patients in a tertiary health facility in South East Nigeri

Collette Owhuo Elechi 1 and Francis Osemhoahu Erah 2, *

1 Department of Pharmaceutical services, National Obstetric Fistula Centre (NOFIC), Abakiliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
2 Department of Community Medicine, Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Irrua, Edo State, Nigeria.
 
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Pharmaceutical and Medical Research, 2024, 06(02), 028–040.
Article DOI: 10.53346/wjapmr.2024.6.2.0051
Publication history: 
Received on 26 October 2022; revised on 24 June 2024; accepted on 27 June 2024
 
Abstract: 
Objectivies: To assess antihypertensive medication adherence among hypertensive patients in a tertiary health facility in South East Nigeria
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was utilized for this study. A total of 392 respondents were recruited for the study using systematic sampling technique. The study instrument was interviewer administered structured questionnaire. Data were collated and entered into SPSS spread sheet version 23.0. Results presented in Table and test of association computed for knowledge and sociodemographic variable as well as adherence and sociodemographic variable. Morisky medication adherence scale was used to classify respondents into low, medium and high adherence.
Results: About thirty three per cent (33.7% ) of respondents were of the age group 41-50 years while only 7.1% were of the age group 70 years and above. Sixty point seven percent (60.7%) of the respondents were males. Most respondents had monthly income of less than #40,000 while few representing 2.7% earn above #100,000 monthly. Fifty-nine point four percent (59.4%) of respondents were aware of the drug they take for hypertension. 87% of the respondents had good knowledge of antihypertensive drug. 81.1% of respondents had low adherence, 18.9% had medium adherence while none of the respondent had high adherence. The proportion of respondents with medium medication adherence tends to decrease with increasing age while the proportion of low medication adherence increased with increasing age group but this association was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: Majority of the respondents representing 87% had good knowledge of antihypertensive drugs but this did not translate to practice as majority 81.1% of them had low adherence to antihypertensive medication with low adherence increasing as age group of respondents increased.
The factors identified to be associated with medication adherence were socio-demographic factors like age, occupation and cost of drugs.

 

Keywords: 
Adherence; Antihypertensive; Hypertensive; Patients; Medication
 
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