Compliance of Hypertensive Patients to Medication in AL-Imam AL-Hussein medical City- Karbala- 2018

Abstract

Background ꓽ High blood pressure (BP) is estimated to cause 7.5 million deaths worldwide, around 12.8% of the whole deaths . It is a major risk factor for coronary artery disease and its complications, heart failure, renal insufficiency, stroke and blindness in diabetic patients.                                                                                         Aimꓽ This study designed to determine the compliance of hypertensive patients attending the consultation clinics of internal medicine in Al-Imam Al-Hussein  medical city with treatment regimen and the causes of noncompliance ꓸ                                                                          Methodꓽ It is a descriptive cross- sectional study was conducted in the outpatient clinics of Al- Imam Al-Hussein medical city in Karbala during the period from March through June 2018.Total study sample was 335 hypertensive patients ,their ages over 25 years were selected by convenience sampling procedure according to the inclusion criteria . They were interviewed and assessed using special questionnaire format based on sociodemographic data, Morisky 8- item medication adherence scale (MMAS-8) ,and measuring of blood pressure .                                                             Resultsꓽ the mean age of the patients was 58.69 ± 11.87 years. Good compliance with treatment was present in only (28.36%) of the sample, (25.67%) with partial compliance and (45.97%) had poor compliance. Good control of blood pressure was present only in (23.3%) of the patients .The absence of symptoms was the first isolated cause of non-compliance to medication (21.9%), followed by forgetfulness (18.8%), the cost of medication (16.3%) then negligence and carelessness of patients (9.4%),while (23.1%) of the patients had more than one specific reason to their poor compliance .                                                                         conclusionꓽ the study revealed a low rate of medication compliance and low level of blood pressure control with strong association between them. Compliance increased with age, male gender, higher level of education and income, longer duration of the disease, presence of complications, using healthy diet and having positive believe about hypertension treatment and its consequences.