Olga Zamalijeva, Roma Jusienė, Jolita Badarienė
Abstract
Medication non-adherence among patients with hypertension is one of the main reasons for poor treatment efficacy, higher healthcare costs, increased patient morbidity and mortality. Despite numerous attempts to explain and improve adherence to long-term treatment regimen, the prevalence of non-adherence is still very common. Moreover, treatment adherence research rarely includes environmental variables as proposed by the ecological model. The aim of this study is to analyze the role of patient-level and micro-level variables in predicting medication non-adherence among patients with hypertension. Method. 101 hypertensive outpatients aged 33-93 (M = 60.13; SD = 11.85) volunteered to participate in the study. A self-report questionnaire was constructed to assess subjects’ adherence to medication regimen. Pivotal socioeconomic variables were recorded as well as treatment-related information, illnessrelated beliefs, perceived social support and satisfaction with the healthcare provider. Results show that perceived longer illness duration and higher satisfaction with the healthcare provider predict lower levels of intentional medication non-adherence. Younger age, higher intensity of side effects and lower levels of perceived social support predict higher unintentional medication non-adherence. Amount of prescribed medication has no direct effect on unintentional medication non-adherence, but is mediated through intensity of side effects. Results of this study emphasize the importance of environmental variables and recognition of various patterns of medication non-adherence, which provide additional understanding of the complexity of this health-related behavior.
Keyword(s): non-adherence to medication regimen; social support; satisfaction with healthcare provider; perceived illness duration; hypertension.
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2015.121
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