Abstract
Objective: To assess patientcompliance in systemic hypertension and to identifythe causes of non-compliance.
Study Design: A descriptive observational study.
Place and Duration Of Study: The study was conducted in the Department Of Medicine Unit I and Unit II at
Pakistan Railway Hospital , Rawalpindi, for 1 month from of SeptemtM, 2012 to of October, 2012.
Materials and Methods: Semi structured interviews of 32 patients with primary hygMtension who were
in medical ward were done along with their blood gressurc readings and their compliance was assessed. Morisky
8-item rnedication adherence questionnaire' was used to assess the adherence to ant-hypertensive medication.
Scores of less than 3 out Of 8 were termed as compliant While scores Of 3 or more were termed as non-compliant.
Non-compliance was defined as missing at least two days of medications per week. This definition was arrived
at from the general understanding that a minimum compliance of 80% is to achieve an adequate
reduction in blood pressure in the treatment of hypertension.'
Results: Among 32 patients, 18 were male while 14 were female with mean age of 56 years. Twenty six out of
thirty two (8125%) patients did not cornply with their antihypertensive medications. In majority of the patients
(42.3%), misperception about disease and management due to inadequate education by health care providers
was found to be the cause of non-cnrnpliance. Other causes were considering medication unnecessary (15.3%)
or ineffective (11.5%), forgetting to take them regularly (11.5%), unaffordable drug prices (11.5%) and
unpleasant side effects (7.7%).
Conclusion: Patients compliance in hypertension was sub-optimal and misperceptions of the disease and its
management seemed to play a major role for non-compliance. Physician-patient relationship, effective
communication and better understanding of the disease can result in adequate control of hypertension and its
complications.
Muhammad Ali, Jawad Hameed, Muhammad Hamza Zia, Raja Adil Masood, Aamir Shahzad. (2013) Patient Compliance in Systemic Hypertension and to Identify Causes of Non-Compliance, Journal of Islamic International Medical College, Volume-8, Issue-1.
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