Medication adherence and blood pressure control among hypertensive patients in a Nigerian tertiary hospital: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Despite the availability of potent antihypertensive medications blood pressure control remains low worldwide. Poor blood pressure control is known to contribute significantly to the morbidity and mortality among hypertensive patients with developing countries disproportionately affected. There are limited studies locally on relationship between medication adherence and blood pressure control. Aim: To investigate the relationship between medication adherence and blood pressure control among hypertensive patients attending Family Medicine clinic of UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria. Methods: A cross-sectional hospital-based study was conducted. Systematic sampling method was used to recruit 300 known adult hypertensive patients from August to November, 2021. Data was collected using a pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire and medication adherence was measured using Morisky 8-Item Medication Adherence Questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with p-value < 0.05 taken to be statistically significant. Results: This study recorded poor medication adherence among the study participants with 51.3% and 48.7% medium and low medication adherence respectively. Blood pressure control rate (46.7%) was also low. There is a directly proportional relationship between medication adherence and blood pressure control among the participants which was statistically (p= 0.001). Conclusions: Hypertensive patients adhered poorly to antihypertensive medication and the blood pressure control among them was poor.