Evaluation of treatment compliance of hypertension patients living in the earthquake region after the earthquake

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of treatment compliance of hypertension patients and the factors affecting it after the February 2023 earthquakes. Material and method: The population of this descriptive study consisted of hypertension patients who applied to Malatya Battalgazi State Hospital Internal Medicine outpatient clinic and emergency department between 1 March and 15 April 2024. 372 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria into the sampling research were included. The data were collected by face-to-face interview using the Scale for Assessing Individuals' Treatment Adherence and Life Change Success. It was utilized from SPSS 22.0 package program ın the analysis of the data. Results: The mean age of the patients was 62.36±10.03 years and 61.3% were female. The mean score of the Compliance to Medical Treatment subscale was 25.67±3.50 and the mean total score of the Scale for the Evaluation of Hypertensive Individuals' Compliance to Treatment and Success of Life Changes was 69.62±6.70. The scores of treatment compliance and life change success were found to be lower in women, those with more children, illiterate, housewives, those whose income was less than their expenses, and those who had controls only once a year. A negative correlation was found between the number of children, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, number of emergency room visits due to HT in the last 6 months and the scores of adaptation and life change success, and a positive low-level correlation was found between the duration of the disease. Conclusion: Post-earthquake, the treatment compliance of HT patients residing region, where adverse conditions related to living conditions that may particularly affect treatment adherence are still mostly persisting, was found to be generally good. However, since compliance and life change success scores were found to be low in women, those with more children, illiterates, housewives, those with less income than expenses, and those with irregular follow-up visits, studies should be planned to increase both compliance to treatment and life change success in hypertension patients, especially in these groups. Researchers can increase treatment compliance and life change success by conducting studies that will positively affect awareness, compliance, level of knowledge, attitude and behaviour change and health beliefs. Keywords: Earthquake, Hypertension, Treatment adherence, Life Change Success