Adherence to pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatment in ambulatory hypertensive patients at a healthcare institution

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate adherence to the pharmacological and nonpharmacological antihypertensive treatment prescribed for ambulatory patients at a secondary and tertiary care institution in Valledupar.

Materials and method: a descriptive, cross-sectional, single-center study. Hypertensive patients over the age of 18 seen in the outpatient or cardiac rehabilitation department at an institution in the city of Valledupar from January 2 to March 31, 2020, were included and interviewed to assess their pharmacological adherence using the Morisky-Green test, and their nonpharmacological adherence through self-report. People with mental disorders rendering them incapable of responding to the interview were excluded.

Results: of the 333 total participants, 127 were considered adherent to pharmacological treatment according to the Morisky-Green test (38.1%, 95% CI: 32.9-42.4%), with no differences found by sex (p=0.66), age (p=0.27), health insurance status (p=0.19), socioeconomic status (p=0.11), marital status (p=0.36), educational level (p=0.19), area of residence (p=0.45), number of medications used (p=0.82), length of treatment in years (p=0.34) or the medical service in which they received care (p=0.66). In addition, only 18.9% (95% CI 14.7-23.1%) adhered to all the nonpharmacological treatment guidelines and 9.6% (95% CI: 6.4-12.7%) adhered to both pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatment.

Conclusions: in this report, adherence to antihypertensive treatment was only found in approximately one-third of the patients (38.1%), and therefore multidisciplinary work is needed to educate patients and families, involving them in treatment decisions and improving adherence