Good medication adherence was observed in 76.9% of hypertensive outpatients, though only 43.2% had controlled blood pressure, suggesting a central role for lifestyle modifications.
Cross-Sectional (n=849)
No
What is the rate of medication adherence and blood pressure control, and what factors are associated with poor adherence among hypertensive outpatients in Tanzania?
Despite a high rate of medication adherence (76.9%) among hypertensive outpatients in Tanzania, blood pressure control remains suboptimal (43.2%), suggesting that adherence alone is insufficient and lifestyle modifications are critical.
Background: Notwithstanding the availability of effective treatments, asymptomatic nature and the interminable treatment length, adherence to medication remains a substantial challenge among patients with hypertension. Suboptimal adherence to BP-lowering agents is a growing global concern that is associated with the substantial worsening of disease, increased service utilization and health-care cost escalation. This study aimed to explore medication adherence and its associated factors among hypertension outpatients attending a tertiary-level cardiovascular hospital in Tanzania. Methods: The pill count adherence ratio (PCAR) was used to compute adherence rate. In descriptive analyses, adherence was dichotomized and consumption of less than 80% of the prescribed medications was used to denote poor adherence. Logistic regression analyses was used to determine factors associated with adherence. Results: A total of 849 outpatients taking antihypertensive drugs for ≥1 month prior to recruitment were randomly enrolled in this study. The mean age was 59.9 years and about two-thirds were females. Overall, a total of 653 (76.9%) participants had good adherence and 367 (43.2%) had their blood pressure controlled. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed; lack of a health insurance (OR 0.5, 95% CI 0.3-0.7, p1 week (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.4-0.8, p1 month (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.3-0.6, p<0.001), frequent unavailability of drugs (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.3-0.9, p = 0.03), running out of medication before the next appointment (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.4-0.9, p = 0.01) and stopping medications when asymptomatic (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.4-0.8, p<0.001) to be independent associated factors for poor adherence. Conclusion: A substantial proportion of hypertensive outpatients in this tertiary-level setting had good medication adherence. Nonetheless, observed suboptimal blood pressure control regardless of a fairly satisfactory adherence rate suggests that lifestyle modification plays a central role in hypertension management.
Pallangyo et al. (Mon,) conducted a cross-sectional in Hypertension (n=849). Antihypertensive drugs was evaluated on Good medication adherence (consumption of ≥80% of prescribed medications). Good medication adherence was observed in 76.9% of hypertensive outpatients, though only 43.2% had controlled blood pressure, suggesting a central role for lifestyle modifications.