Antihypertensive medication adherence and associated factors among adult hypertensive patients at Jimma University Specialized Hospital, southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundAdherence to antihypertensive medications is a key component to control blood pressure levels. Poor adherence to these medications leads to the development of hypertensive complications and increase risk of cardiovascular events which in turn reduces the ultimate clinical outcome. The purpose of this study was to assess antihypertensive medication adherence and associated factors among adult hypertensive patients. A hospital-based cross-sectional study among adult hypertensive patients was conducted at hypertensive follow-up clinic of Jimma University Specialized Hospital from March 4, 2015 to April 3, 2015. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the study participants from the study population. The study patients were interviewed and their medical charts were reviewed using a pretested structured questionnaire. Adherence was assessed using Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (MMAS-8) and MMAS-8 score less than 6 was considered as non-adherent and MMAS-8 score was ≥ 6 was declared as adherence. Factors associated with adherence were identified using binary and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Crude odds ratio, adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and 95% confidence interval of the odds ratio were calculated using SPSS version 21. Variables with p-value less than 0.05 were assumed as statistically significant factors.ResultsAmong 280 hypertensive patients, 61.8% of the study participants were found to be adherent. More than half (53.2%) of the participants were males and the mean age of the participants was 55.0 ± 12.7 years. Co-morbidity (AOR = 0.083, 95% CI = 0.033–0.207, p < 0.001), alcohol intake (AOR = 0.011, 95% CI = 0.002–0.079, p < 0.001), getting medications freely (AOR = 0.020, 95% CI = 0.003–0.117, p < 0.001), and combination of antihypertensive medications (AOR = 0.32, 95% CI = 0.144–0.712, p < 0.005) were inversely associated with antihypertensive medication adherence.ConclusionThe adherence level to the prescribed antihypertensive medications was found to be sub-optimal according to the MMAS-8, and influenced by co morbidity, alcohol intake, self-purchasing of the medications and combination of antihypertensive medications.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-018-3139-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Treatment adherence and frailty syndrome in hypertensive older adults

“…A study carried out in Taiwan (22) identified significantly worse adherence to treatment among non-frail patients, while researchers in Poland (17) found the highest frailty scores among older adult patients, being considered a determining factor of less adherence to treatment. As in this study, there are publications which do not report a correlation between frailty and adherence (12,27) .…”

“…In a study in Taiwan (22) , the best adherence to treatment was related to frail patients with advanced age, as they are more attentive to their health and more compliant with the prescribed treatments. According to researchers from Ethiopia (27) , developed and developing countries have better healthcare and differentiated access to health facilities, constituting elements which positively affect adherence in comparison with this study and those carried out in countries with difficult access to health services.…”

“…A population-based study in Brazil showed an association between adherence and education (26) , corroborating the findings of the present study. For Ethiopian researchers (27) , education is related to the understanding that the older adults have about their diagnosis and the importance of treating the disease, as prescribed by the physician.…”

Correction to: Antihypertensive medication adherence and associated factors among adult hypertensive patients at Jimma University Specialized Hospital, southwest Ethiopia

“…After publication of our article [ 1 ] we became aware that we had not obtained permission to reproduce the questions from the eight-item Morisky’s Medication Adherence Scale. The table in this Correction replaces Table 2 in our article.…”

Non-communicable disease clinics in rural Ethiopia: why patients are lost to follow-up

“…Data from hypertension clinics in large referral hospitals based in urban centres suggest that factors such as age, knowledge about the disease, distance from the hospital and the presence of comorbidities are all predictors of patient adherence. 10,[13][14][15] Little is known, however, about the retention of hypertensive patients in rural populations, where the reasons are likely to be different. While financial difficulties, knowledge of the disease, poor social support, stigma and the occurrence of side effects have been identified as factors affecting adherence in epilepsy patients attending urban clinics, 16,17 data concerning rural epilepsy patients are sparse, although there are suggestions that the determinants of LTFU in rural areas may be different.…”