[Drug compliance behavior of hypertensive patients in 3-shift work with a prescription for 3 or more single doses daily].

82 hypertensive patients with a prescription of medicaments of three and more individual doses a day who worked in the three-shift system were anonymously asked about their behaviour concerning the intake of tablets. 78% said not to have obtained any recommendations for the intake of tablets during the nightwork. 20.7% of them took antihypertensive drugs at night during the shift. 51.3% in the day-time and 28.0% did not take any tablets during the night-work. The compliance was approximately 60%, similarly as in hypertensive patients working in the one-shift system. With 3.7% the non-compliance was lowest during the night-shift. It was 22.0% during the early shift and 12.1% during the late shift. Side-effects and disturbances of the good health, respectively, during the antihypertensive treatment were stated with 14.0% and with 7.3% they appeared most frequently during the night-work. There was a statistically ascertained connection between the intake of tablets at night during work and the side-effects. They altogether appeared more infrequently, when a concrete advice was given by the physician. From this is concluded that on principle in shift-workers a treatment of the hypertension is to be aspired to with one or two individual doses a day, otherwise in a prescription of three individual doses the tablets should not be taken at night during work, but in the day-time. The temporary intake of tablets during shift-work as well as possible side-effects and corresponding behaviour patterns when disturbances of good health are appearing are to be discussed in detail particularly with the three-shift workers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)