Patient’s Adherence Towards Antihypertensive Medication and Life-Style Modification in Asmara, Eritrea

Hypertension is one of the major risk factors for coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and end-stage renal disease and remains the main public health challenge. In Africa, 15% of the population has hypertension [1]. According to the data from Health Information Management System (HIMS) of Eritrea the incidence of hypertension in Eritrea was 8305 in 2014. Poor adherence towards antihypertensive medication is the main problem of treatment failure and wastage of health care resource which leads to increased morbidity and mortality rate among hypertensive patients [2]. The aim of the study is to assess patient’s adherence level towards antihypertensive medication and their life style modification in Halibet and Hazhaz Hospitals. This is Hospital based cross-sectional quantitative study. Sample size was determined using Krejcie & Morgan formula. The sample size was 360. Sample of 360 was collected by consecutive non probability method by approaching the patients during their follow up time those who fulfill the inclusion criteria. Pilot study was done in Halibet hospital. Morisky medication adherence scale was used to assess medication adherence rate. Data was entered and analyzed using statistics package for social sciences version 20. P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. The ethical issue was dealt by obtaining a permission letter from the School of Nursing and given to the medical directors of both hospitals. The adherence rate of the respondents towards medication was 69.2%. Among the respondents 71.7% had good adherence towards life style modification. Most of the participants were found to be adherent to their medication and life style modification that is 69.2% &71.7% respectively. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was negatively associate with medication adherence at p- value=0.004 and 0.002 respectively. Age was significantly associated (p-value=0.000) with adherence to lifestyle modification. Recommendation health education should be given routinely to improve the rate of adherence toward their medication and life style modification by improving patient’s knowledge and perception about hypertension and its consequence.