Adherence to Anti-Hypertensive Medication among Adults Attending Out-Patients Clinic at the Maamobi General Hospital.

Abstract

Hypertension is one of the non-communicable diseases that is on the rise and has been recognized as a major public health problem that is associated with relatively low levels of awareness, drug treatment, and blood pressure control. Treatment adherence is the degree of compliance with prescribed therapeutic measures, which can be medicinal or not, aiming at maintaining blood pressure levels. This study sought to determine the level of adherence among adults attending the outpatients’ clinic of the Maamobi General Hospital. The study employed a descriptive cross sectional research design and quantitative research approve which was used in converting data into numerical form so that the data could be analysed. A structured questionnaire was randomly distributed to 417 hypertensive outpatients 18 years and above out of the population that visited the hospital. The primary data collected was coded and entered in a Microsoft Excel 2010 spreadsheet and STATA version 15. Percentages, frequency tables, pie chart, and cross tabulations were the statistical tools used for describing the data while Multiple Logistic Regression and Chi-squared Test were used to analyze the data. The results obtained demonstrated that socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of hypertensive patients respectively affect the adherence to medication as well barriers that inhibit adherence to medication treatment among which side effects of medication in take was principal. It was found out that the level of adherence to antihypertensive medication among these adults was 68.45%.