Prevalence of Adherence to Treatment of Hypertension and Its Determinants in Rural Haryana, North India.

INTRODUCTION: Adherence is the single most important modifiable factor that compromises treatment outcome of the hypertension. In India, information about adherence to hypertension treatment and its determinants in rural areas is largely unknown and in India more than 70% of the population is rural. METHODS: A community based cross-sectional study was carried out in twenty eight villages in Ballabgarh block of Haryana, north India. Sample size of 340 was calculated and adults (≥ 18 years) with self-reported hypertension were selected by simple random sampling at community level. Adherence to treatment was studied by both recall and pill count methods. Information about socio-demographic characteristic was also obtained. RESULTS: Out of 350 subjects with self-reported hypertension, 190 (54.3%, 95% CI 49–59) were not taking any kind of treatment for at least the last month. Adherence (100%) by recall method was reported among 96 (27.4%, 95% CI 23.0–33.3) subjects and by pill count among 66(18.9%, 95% CI 14.5–22.7) subjects. Higher adherence rate was observed among subjects with controlled hypertension. Symptom free disease period was reported to be most common cause of non-adherence. Factors such as low education status ( P = 0.02), younger age ( P < 0.001) and tobacco use ( P = 0.04) were identified as independent predictors of adherence in multivariate analysis.