The association of knowledge and perception of medications with compliance and health states among hypertension patients: A prospective study

Abstract The purposes of this prospective study were () to describe the associations among patients' knowledge of medications and perceptions of side effects and benefits of medications, () to clarify the independent effects of knowledge and perceptions of side effects upon patients' reports of compliance with medications, and (c) to describe the relationship between compliance and patients' health states as measured by a reduction in diastolic blood pressure. Eighty‐eight diagnosed hypertensive patients were interviewed at the onset of a medication regimen and at the end of 5 months. Audits of medical records were completed for the entire 5‐month period. The results indicated that both knowledge and perceptions of benefits from medications were significantly correlated with patient compliance at the beginning and at the end observations. The partial correlations, however, indicated that knowledge of medications had a greater independent association with compliance at the beginning of the study and that perceptions of benefits from medications had a greater independent association with compliance at the end observation period. Finally, patients who, on the average, complied with their medications more than two‐thirds of the time experienced a clinically significant reduction in their diastolic blood pressure. The results of the study suggest that knowledge may serve to stimulate compliance at the beginning of a treatment regimen, whereas perceptions are more effective stimulants once therapy has begun. These findings are discussed in view of the literature on patient knowledge and their implications for primary care providers.