A cross-sectional study on the assessment of adherence to cardiovascular medications in Sudan heart center

BACKGROUND: Non-adherence to cardiovascular medications is a global problem with clinical, economic, and humanistic consequences. Investigation of this problem may open the road for proper management of cardiovascular diseases. OBJECTIVE: Our objectives were to assess the level of adherence to, and to examine factors influencing adherence to, cardiovascular medications in subjects visiting a heart center in Sudan. METHODS: We have conducted a cross-sectional study that assessed adherence to cardiovascular medications among subjects visiting outpatient cardiac clinics in a heart center-Khartoum State, Sudan. The validated Adherence to Refills and Medication Scale (ARMS) tool was used to assess the level of medication adherence. A score of >16 was used as a cut-off point to categorize surveyed patients into non-adherent (e.g., 17-48) and adherent (e.g., 12-16) in ARMS. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and inferential tests such as One-Way ANOVA and Binary regression were used for data analysis. RESULTS: A total of 255 subjects were enrolled in this study. Slightly more than half the respondents were males (54.5%) and their ages ranged between (51-60 years), and have no insurance coverage (58%). Most of the subjects were married (60.4%), were from Khartoum-State (67.8%), and were unemployed (77.6%). About 39.6% had primary education while 34.5% had secondary (34.5%) education. Diabetes (56.1%) and hypertension (45.5%) were common among the study population. The results showed a high non-adherence prevalence rate (97.6%). The cited reasons for non-adherence include forgetfulness and the costs of refilling medications. Education and age were associated with the level of adherence. Those with high non-adherence behaviors were the more educated, younger and old patients, those not employed, and those having comorbid diseases. CONCLUSION: The results generally showed a high level of non-adherence to cardiovascular medications, necessitating interventions to support patients' adherence.