Is patient knowledge of hypertension management associated with medication adherence in hypertensive patients?
In a Pakistani cohort of hypertensive patients, higher knowledge scores were paradoxically associated with lower medication adherence, suggesting that knowledge alone without understanding the benefits of continuous use is insufficient.
Purpose: To evaluate the association between patient’s knowledge of hypertension management and medication adherence.Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken with 385 hypertensive patients who visited outpatient departments in two public hospitals in Quetta City, Pakistan. Besides demographic and disease-relatedquestions, two validated questionnaires (Hypertension Fact Questionnaire and Drug Attitude Inventory) were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics were to determine the demographic and diseasecharacteristics of the patients while Spearman rank correlation was employed to measure the association between knowledge and drug adherence.Results: Out of 385 patients, 236 (61.3 %) of the patients had average knowledge about hypertension while 249 (64.7 %) were categorized as poor adherent. No patient was considered as good adherent in the study. Correlation coefficient between total score of knowledge and total adherence was – 0.170 (p < 0.001), indicating an inverse association between knowledge scores and adherence level.Conclusion: Although the level of knowledge was average, patients were unsure of the benefits of continuous medication use which resulted in non-adherence to regimens. Educating patients about the benefits of medications and clarifying doubts regarding medication use should result in better control of hypertension.
Saleem et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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