Medication adherence in hypertensive patients, evaluation of factors affecting medication adherence and evaluation of quality of life

Medication Adherence in Hypertensive Patients, Evaluation of Factors Affecting Medication Adherence and Evaluation of Quality of Life Aim: Hypertension is one of the major health problems. It is therefore important to ensure its prevention as well as raising awareness, informing public for early diagnosis and ensuring adaptation of patients to its treatment and lifestyle recommendations. The aim of this study is to investigate the compliance levels of patients with hypertension and assess the factors affecting compliance with treatment and their quality of life. Material and Methodology: Malatya Central family health centers outpatients who have been receiving at least six months of medical hypertension treatment, willing to participate in the study have been used in this study. The questionnaire form consisting of questions regarding sociodemographic characteristics, hypertension-related characteristics, exercise and diet habits and 'Hill Bone Hypertension Compliance Scale' and 'SF 36 Scale' have been employed for data collection. Results: 140 patients have been evaluated in total. Of the volunteers, 76 are female and 64 are male. The mean age is 57.15 ± 8.30. The exact compliance rates of the patients have been found to be 12.1%. Findings of the study suggests that factors such as smoking, frequency of blood pressure, duration of hypertension diagnosis, frequency of control, concomitant kidney disease, dieting and exercise status have negatively affected treatment compliance in patients. Factors affecting quality of life have been determined as age, gender, marital status, concomitant disease status, exercise status, number of drugs used due to hypertension, frequency of control due to hypertension and the correlation between quality of life and compliance with treatment. Conclusion: Compliance rates have been found to be low in patients with hypertension.Many factors affecting compliance have been identified in the study and the quality of life has also been acknowledged to be one of themaffecting the compliance with treatment in patients with hypertension. Key Words: Hypertension, medication adherence, quality of life.