Adherence to medications and associated factors: A cross-sectional study among Palestinian hypertensive patients

Rowa’ Al-Ramahi

doi:10.1016/j.jegh.2014.05.005

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Volume 5, Issue 2, June 2015, Pages 125 - 132

Adherence to medications and associated factors: A cross-sectional study among Palestinian hypertensive patients

Authors

Rowa’ Al-Ramahi^*^,rawa_ramahi@najah.edu

Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, P.O. Box: 7, Nablus, Palestine

^*Tel.: +972 9 2345113.

Corresponding Author

Rowa’ Al-Ramahirawa_ramahi@najah.edu

Received 2 August 2013, Revised 8 May 2014, Accepted 14 May 2014, Available Online 21 June 2014.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jegh.2014.05.005 How to use a DOI?
Keywords: Adherence; Hypertension; Forgetfulness; Palestine
Abstract: Objective: To assess adherence of Palestinian hypertensive patients to therapy and to investigate the effect of a range of demographic and psychosocial variables on medication adherence.

Methods: A questionnaire-based, cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken at a group of outpatient clinics of the Ministry of Health, in addition to a group of private clinics and pharmacies in the West Bank. Social and demographic variables and self-reported drug adherence (Morisky scale) were determined for each patient.

Results: Low adherence with medications was present in 244 (54.2%) of the patients. The multivariate logistic regression showed that younger age (<45 years), living in a village compared with a city, evaluating health status as very good, good or poor compared with excellent, forgetfulness, fear of getting used to medication, adverse effect, and dissatisfaction with treatment had a statistically significant association with lower levels of medication adherence (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: Poor adherence to medications was very common. The findings of this study may be used to identify the subset of population at risk of poor adherence who should be targeted for interventions to achieve better blood pressure control and hence prevent complications. This study should encourage the health policy makers in Palestine to implement strategies to reduce non-compliance, and thus contribute toward reducing national health care expenditures. Better patient education and communication with healthcare professionals could improve some factors that decrease adherence such as forgetfulness and dissatisfaction with treatment.
Copyright: © 2014 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access: This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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Journal: Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
Volume-Issue: 5 - 2
Pages: 125 - 132
Publication Date: 2014/06/21
ISSN (Online): 2210-6014
ISSN (Print): 2210-6006
DOI: 10.1016/j.jegh.2014.05.005 How to use a DOI?
Open Access: This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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ris enw bib

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Rowa’ Al-Ramahi
PY  - 2014
DA  - 2014/06/21
TI  - Adherence to medications and associated factors: A cross-sectional study among Palestinian hypertensive patients
JO  - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
SP  - 125
EP  - 132
VL  - 5
IS  - 2
SN  - 2210-6014
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2014.05.005
DO  - 10.1016/j.jegh.2014.05.005
ID  - Al-Ramahi2014
ER  -

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