Assessment of Medication Adherence in Hypertensive Patients among Warangal Population

Background: Hypertension is the most common disease in India where 1 in 4 people suffering with it. In order to achieve the intended therapeutic outcomes, medication adherence is essential. Patients with hypertension must adhere to their disease by taking their prescriptions on time, following their diet, and making other lifestyle modifications. This study aims to assess medication adherence in Warangal population among hypertensive patients with comorbidities, social habits, medication use etc.

Aims: The aim of the study is to assess the level of medication adherence and to investigate predictors of medication adherence and controlled hypertension in patients and to identify the factors enhancing medication adherence. The secondary aim is to describe the extent and type of medication used in patient population in Warangal.

Study Design: An Observational, retrospective and cross - sectional study was employed to assess the predictors and level of medication adherence in hypertensive patients.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Cardiology, Sri Sri Cardiac Centre and Bhageerath Cardiac Care Centre, Hanamkonda, Warangal. The study was conducted from October 2022 to April 2023 for about a duration of 7 months.

Methodology: This study includes 300 Hypertensive patients (Male - 169, Female 131) of age range between 20-90 years with various comorbidities like diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, hypothyroidism, dyslipidemia, COPD. We also included various sociodemographic factors like Gender, Age, Literacy, Income status, Alcohol consumption, Smoking status, Marital status, Controlled and Uncontrolled hypertension, usage of various drugs and Duration of hypertension. We observed Medication Adherence by using MMAS 8 scale.

Results: Low levels of medication adherence among female patients (41%), educated patients (58%) compared to other groups because of awareness about their condition. Low adherence is noted in patients with low-income status ( 9.6% ), High adherence in nonsmokers (73.3%) and non-alcoholic (60.6%) compared to smokers (10.6%) and alcoholics (12.6%) and high adherence is reported in married (85%) category as compared to unmarried (2.6%), Patients with low comorbidities reported high adherence compared to patients with low comorbidities. High medication adherence is reported in uncontrolled blood pressure (50.3%) and in patients with year (24.6%) and 2-6 years (28%) of duration of hypertension. High adherence is noted with 2 combination therapy (23.6%), most of the participants are adherent to Telmisartan+ Metoprolol (25.2%) followed by Telmisartan+ hydrochlorothiazide (19.3%). According to MMAS-8 scale most of the patients reported (Q1) and (Q6), 91.3% of our study population were adherent to their medication, 7% were moderately adherent and 1.6% were low adherent to their medication.

Conclusion: 91.3% of Medication adherence is noted in hypertensive patients in Warangal population. 8.6% of Medication Non-Adherence is noted and various factors for nonadherence were reported by patients. However various methods and apps should be developed to overcome the Medication Non-Adherence.