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Abstract

Objectives: To study the knowledge, awareness, and medication adherence among hypertensive patients in a tertiary care hospital.

Materials and methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Adesh Hospital, Bathinda. Institutional Ethics Committee approval was obtained prior conducting this research. Data was collected from 105 hypertensive patients who were attending Department of General Medicine. Both males and females above age of 18 years were included in the study. Written Informed consent in English and local languages were obtained from participants before enrolling in the study.

Data was collected using MMAS-8 questionnaire. After obtaining the data, SPSS version 21 was used to analyse the data. Data was analysed based on the responses from the MMAS-8 questionnaire and Knowledge of hypertension questionnaire.

Results: Majority of the patients were not adherent to their blood pressure medications. There was a liner relationship between the knowledge of patient regarding their hypertension and the subsequent adherence to their medication. Most of the patients were aware of the normal values of their blood pressure. However, majority of them were not aware about the hypertension range of blood pressure values. Patient perceptions regarding family history, age, gender, obesity, diet, salt intake were the contributory factors relating to non-adherence. The study shows that out of 105 hypertensive patients, maximum respondents were female with 55 (52.4%) respondents of the total respondents.

Conclusion: we concluded that patient’s knowledge regarding their disease could improve adherence. Most of the patients who were adherent to their medication regimen were aware of their disease in general. Health care professionals including doctors, nurses and pharmacists can play an important role in educating patients regarding their hypertension status and blood pressure values and the importance of medication adherence. This will hopefully lead to increases awareness and increased adherence among the patients.