Objective To assess adherence of
Palestinian hypertensive patients to therapy and to investigate the effect of a
range of demographic and psychosocial variables on medication adherence.
Methods
A questionnaire-based, cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken at
a group of outpatient clinics of the Ministry of Health, in addition to a group
of private clinics and pharmacies in the West Bank. Social and demographic
variables and self-reported drug adherence (Morisky scale) were determined for
each patient.
Results Low adherence with medications was present in 244 (54.2%) of the
patients. The multivariate logistic regression showed that younger age
(<45 years), living in a village compared with a city, evaluating
health status as very good, good or poor compared with excellent,
forgetfulness, fear of getting used to medication, adverse effect, and dissatisfaction
with treatment had a statistically significant association with lower levels of
medication adherence (P < 0.05).
Conclusions Poor adherence to medications was very common. The findings
of this study may be used to identify the subset of population at risk of poor
adherence who should be targeted for interventions to achieve better blood
pressure control and hence prevent complications. This study should encourage
the health policy makers in Palestine to implement strategies to reduce
non-compliance, and thus contribute toward reducing national health care
expenditures. Better patient education and communication with healthcare
professionals could improve some factors that decrease adherence such as forgetfulness
and dissatisfaction with treatment.
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