Chiabi RM1*, Tembe E1, and Menanga AP1,2
1Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Yaounde I,
Cameroon
2Hypertension Unit, Yaounde General Hospital, Cameroon
*Corresponding Author: Chiabi RM, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Yaounde I, Cameroon.
Received: December 23, 2019; Published: December 31, 2019
Background: Hypertension is responsible for at least 45% of deaths due to heart disease. The number of people with uncontrolled hypertension is increasing because of population growth and ageing. A very high prevalence rate of hypertension of 29.7% was reported in Cameroon. Hypertension requires long term management and follow-up. Adherence to therapy is a key component of a successful management. Few studies have been done in Cameroon regarding antihypertensive treatment adherence. This study was therefore designed to assess the adherence status and associated factors to antihypertensive therapy in hypertensive patients followed-up at Yaounde General Hospital.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional analytic study conducted at the external consultation service of the cardiology unit of the Yaounde General Hospital. This study was carried out over a period of seven months. Patients admitted into this study were selected consecutively and those that met our inclusion criteria were selected prior to interviewing. Two sitting blood pressure measurements were taken on both arms with a pretested electronic sphygmomanometer. We assessed the adherence level of the study population by using the validated Morisky 8-item medication adherence scale together with other possible factors responsible for poor adherence.
Results: Of the 181 patients screened, 175 were retained for the study. Using the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale, we noted that 40.6% were medium adherers; and 26.9% were low adherers. This means that, 32.6% of participants had good adherence while 67.4% had poor adherence. After multivariate analysis with logistic regression, several variables were found to be significantly associated with poor adherence: first cycle secondary education (p=0.0209; OR=4.6623), living singly (p=0.0003; OR=4.6623), trip duration of one hour or more (p=0.008; OR=7.3925), middle socioeconomic status (p=0.006; OR=2.6814), uncontrolled blood pressure status (p<0.0001; OR=5.5704), presence of handicap (p=0.0117; OR=4.1222), presence of side effects (p<0.0001; OR=11.5143), and taking medication in the evening (p=0.0399; OR=2.5452).
Conclusion: This study depicted a low level of patient adherence to antihypertensives and the existence of several factors responsible for this status quo. It is of utmost importance that all the hindering factors be addressed by healthcare professionals in order to achieve good blood pressure control. Healthcare professionals need to reinforce sensitization of patients with hypertension on the need to adhere to their treatments which is lifelong in order to avoid comorbidities.
Keywords:Adherence; Antihypertensive; Morisky; Yaounde
Citation: Chiabi RM., et al. “An Assessment of Adherence to Antihypertensive Treatment and Associated Factors in Patients at the Yaounde General Hospital”.Acta Scientific Pharmacology 1.1 (2020): 11-19.
Copyright: © 2020 Chiabi RM., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.