Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the
relationship between antihypertensive medication adherence and HRQoL. Methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted, adopting the Morisky eight-item
Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS) for the assessment of medication adherence
and using the European Quality of Life scale (EQ-5D-5L) for the assessment of
HRQoL. Descriptive and comparative statistics were used to describe
socio-demographic and disease-related characteristics of the patients. All
analyses were performed using SPSS v 15.0.
Results: Four hundred and ten
hypertensive patients were enrolled in the study. The mean age of participants
was 58.38 ± 10.65 years; 52% were female and 36.8% had low antihypertensive
medication adherence. Patients with a high adherence rate had the highest HRQoL
scores compared with those with a low or medium adherence rate (Kruskal–Wallis
test; p < 0.05). After adjustment for covariates using multiple regression,
HRQoL was still statistically significantly associated with medication
adherence (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Low HRQoL may be an important barrier to
achieving high rates of adherence to treatment. These study findings could be
helpful in clinical practice, mainly in the early treatment of hypertensive
patients, at a point where improving HRQoL is still possible.
Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for coronary heart disease, heart failure, renal failure and stroke, and it remains an important public health challenge which contributes to disability, health care costs and mortality [1] and [2]. The concepts of medication adherence and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are commonly used in clinical research for assessing pharmaceutical care and improving treatment outcomes [3]. Adherence to drug treatment usually refers to the extent to which patients follow the instructions of their physician or health care providers. HRQoL also refers to the physical, psychological and social dimensions of health that are influenced by a person's experiences, beliefs, expectations and perceptions [4]. Generally one would expect a positive relationship between the two concepts. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between adherence and HRQoL in a hypertensive population. Knowledge of any differences in HRQoL in this population may be helpful in the planning of therapeutic interventions that will ensure desirable HRQoL and not just the control of blood pressure. Knowledge of HRQoL in hypertensive patients and of the relationship between HRQoL and adherence, being a reliable determinant of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, will be helpful in preventing or reducing the incidence of CVDs.