Olga Zamalijeva, Roma Jusienė
Abstract
Background. The lack of adherence to treatment regimen among patients with chronic diseases is one of the main reasons for insufficient disease control and becomes a challenge to health care professionals. Scientific research shows that inability to ensure proper implementation of prescribed treatment has adverse impact on the effectiveness of treatment and rehabilitation, has significant negative health outcomes for patients with chronic illnesses, and also leads to losses on the state level. World Health Organization emphasises hypertension as one of the prioritized diseases in the context of long-term adherence to treatment regimen. Interventions that are designed to improve adherence to treatment regimen are occasionally based on social support enhancement. However, evaluation of effectiveness of such interventions yields controversial results. What is more, there is not enough empirical data to develop a comprehensive model that could explain the interaction between social support and adherence behaviour. The aim of this study is to identify associations between adherence to treatment regimen and perceived social support among patients with hypertension. Method. 101 hypertensive patients aged 33-89 were enrolled in the research. During the survey sociodemographic information was collected, perceived social support and adherence to treatment regimen was evaluated. The adherence to treatment regimen questionnaire depicts missed doses of prescribed medication, health monitoring, level of physical activity, characteristics of diet, and etc. Research results. Higher level of perceived social support among patients with hypertension is related to fewer missed doses of prescribed medication due to forget fulness, more orderly health monitoring, more appropriate diet. Conclusions. Age and the level of perceived social support can significantly predict misuse of prescribed medication determined by forget fulness among patient with hypertension. Article in Lithuanian
Keyword(s): adherence to treatment regimen, social support, hypertension
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2013.125
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