Title: Non compliance of patients to antihypertensive medication: the role of socio-demographic profile, illness perception and treatment beliefs

Authors: Suresh Kumar Behera, Akshaya Kumar Samal, Lipilekha Patnaik

 DOI:  https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i5.102

Abstract

Backgrounds: Hypertension is one of the leading preventable causes of premature death worldwide. Noncompliance to antihypertensive medication contributes mainly to poor control of blood pressure.

Aim: To find out the level of noncompliance to antihypertensive medications and to describe the likely causes of noncompliance from patents’ socio-demographic profile and from their illness perception and treatment beliefs.

Materials and Methods: We recruited adult patients with already known hypertension from cardiology outpatient department. Detailed socio-demographic profile of each patient was collected. The patients were divided into complaint and non-compliant groups according to predefined criteria of compliance. The patients in the noncompliant group were further analyzed about whether socio-demographic profile was affecting the compliance to medication. Each patient in the noncompliant group was encouraged to provide one most appropriate self-explanation for not taking medication regularly and all the opinions were further analyzed to find out the likely health behaviors and health beliefs responsible for noncompliance. 

Results: A total of 995 patients were recruited in the study. The prevalence of non-compliance to antihypertensive medication was 31.2 %. Patients of younger age group and men were more non-compliant. Residence and socioeconomic status did not have any influence on compliance. Wrong illness perception and treatment beliefs are prevalent among patients and are contributing to noncompliance.

Conclusions: This study found that misperceptions about hypertension and its treatment are the prevalent patient-related factors responsible for medication noncompliance. Interventions targeting these misperceptions will definitely reduce the level of noncompliance and its complications. 

Keywords: hypertension, antihypertensive medication, noncompliance, illness perception, treatment beliefs.

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Corresponding Author

Suresh Kumar Behera