Department of Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Ghana.
Pharmacy Department, Ghana Police Hospital, Cantonments, Accra, Ghana.
Afr Health Sci. 2020 Sep;20(3):1355-1367. doi: 10.4314/ahs.v20i3.42.
A major drawback to the management of hypertension among patients is poor adherence to pharmacotherapy. Factors that influence non-adherence to antihypertensive drugs could vary, depending on the prevailing condition of patient and setting. Knowledge of adherence patterns and behavior of hypertensive patients to pharmacotherapy could improve health-directed policies towards hypertension management.
The objective of this study was to determine factors that influence adherence to oral antihypertensive drugs among patients attending two district hospitals in the Volta Region of Ghana.
The study was cross-sectional. Respondents were hypertensive patients attending Krachi West District (n=187) and Hohoe Municipal (n=183) hospitals between March 2016 to May 2016. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and Morisky 8 Item Measurement of adherence scale.
Adherence to oral antihypertensive drugs was 89.2%. However, more than half of these respondents appeared to have uncontrolled blood pressure; and this may be due to self-response bias, blood pressure being measured only on the day of the interview or use of fake drugs (which was not assessed in this study). The strongest predictors of adherence were; knowledge on hypertension, perception of severity of condition and the amount of alcohol consumed in a day by respondents.
Good adherence to oral antihypertensive drugs was observed in this population despite uncontrolled hypertension in a number of the respondents. The three independent predictors of adherence to antihypertensive medications in this study were respondent's knowledge about hypertension, perception of severity of their condition and the amount of alcohol consumed in a day. Regular patient education and counseling by medical practitioners should be encouraged in these settings to improve patient adherence.
高血压患者治疗中存在的一个主要问题是药物治疗的依从性差。影响抗高血压药物依从性的因素可能因患者和环境的不同而有所差异。了解高血压患者对药物治疗的依从模式和行为，有助于制定针对高血压管理的卫生政策。
本研究旨在确定影响加纳沃尔特地区两家地区医院高血压患者口服抗高血压药物依从性的因素。
本研究为横断面研究。2016 年 3 月至 5 月，研究对象为分别在克拉西西部地区医院（n=187）和霍霍市医院（n=183）就诊的高血压患者。采用结构式问卷和 Morisky 8 项药物依从性测量量表收集数据。
口服抗高血压药物的依从率为 89.2%。然而，这些患者中有一半以上的人血压似乎未得到控制；这可能是由于自我报告偏倚，仅在访谈当天测量血压或使用假药物（本研究未对此进行评估）所致。依从性的最强预测因素是：患者对高血压的了解、对病情严重程度的认知以及患者每天的饮酒量。
尽管许多患者的血压未得到控制，但该人群对口服抗高血压药物的依从性良好。本研究中，抗高血压药物依从性的三个独立预测因素是患者对高血压的了解、对病情严重程度的认知以及患者每天的饮酒量。在这些环境中，应鼓励医疗从业者定期对患者进行教育和咨询，以提高患者的依从性。
