Factors Influencing Compliance and Degree of Compliance to Treatment Regimen Among Hypertensive Patients

Background: Hypertension or high blood pressure affects at least 1 billion people worldwide. It is a widespread health problem affecting nearly 20% of the population in most countries. But its control is still a challenge for physicians all around the world. Control of blood pressure can reduce cardio vascular morbidity and mortality. So the compliance to antihypertensive drugs and life style modification play an important role for the control of hypertension.

Aim: To assess the factors influencing compliance and degree of compliance to treatment regimen among hypertensive patients. Materials and methods: A descriptive research design was selected. Total 60 patients were selected by nonprobability purposive sampling technique. The study was conducted in Chettinad hospital and Research Institute at Kelambakkam, Tamilnadu. The data was collected by structured interview method by using structured questionnaire including demographic data. To analyze the data, descriptive and inferential statistics were used.

Results: The findings of the study revealed that with regard to the degree of compliance 41 (68.3%) patients were non-compliant and 19 (31.7%) patients were compliant to treatment regimen. Researcher found that there was a significant difference between the means of socio economic factors (p=0.02), motivational factors (p=0.03) and treatment related factors (0.03) with respect to medication. There was a significant difference between the means of socio economic factors (p=0.001) and motivational factors (p=0.001) with respect to diet. There was a significant difference between the means of socio economic factors (p=0.001), motivational factors (p=0.001) and cognitive factors (p=0.001) with respect to exercise. There was a significant difference between the means of socio economic factors (p=0.001) and cognitive factors (p=0.001) with respect to regular checkup. Researcher also found that there was a significant association between the degree of compliance and the demographic variables of age, education and income.

Conclusion: Socio Economic Factors, Motivational Factors, Treatment Related Factors were the major contributors for noncompliance with medication. Socio economic factors, Motivational Factors were the contributors for non-compliance with diet. Socio economic Factors, Motivational Factors and cognitive Factors were the contributors for noncompliance with exercise. Socio economic Factors and cognitive Factors were the contributor for noncompliance with regular checkup.