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Aug 6, 2023Keywords:
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Adherence and Barriers to Secondary prophylaxis for Rheumatic Heart disease at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital
Abstract
Introduction: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is one of the major causes of cardiovascular disease in developing countries. Secondary prophylaxis is effective for preventing recurrent acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and the progression of RHD. The purpose of the study was to assess adherence and barriers to use secondary prophylaxis for RHD at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH).
Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted from June 5, 2020, to September 4, 2020, at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia. A structured questioner was used for the data collection on awareness, adherence, and barriers for benzathine penicillin prophylaxis in adults with RHD. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.
Results: A total of 385 patients participated in this study, 305(79.6%) patients were aware about sore throat associated with heart disease, and about 288 (75.6%) patients know that benzathine penicillin prevents tonsillitis. Adherence rate was 77.9%. The main barriers for nonadherence in this study were the unavailability of medications, schedule forgetfulness, and health professionals’ refusal to inject benzathine penicillin. Increased age was found to have a significant association with adherence to B. penicillin. For each one-year increase in the age of patients with RHD, the adherence decreases by 3% [AOR= 0.97; 95% CI 0.95, 0.99], P value = 0.006)
Conclusion: Adherence level to monthly benzathine penicillin injection was low, which is below WHO recommendation. This study has revealed major barriers that affect adherence to secondary prophylaxis for RHD that can be used to develop interventions to improve adherence.
