Assessment of patient’s antihypertensive medication adherence level in non-comorbid hypertension in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria

The objectives of the present study were to assess the patient’s antihypertensive medication adherence level in non-comorbid hypertension and to identify and evaluate the causes of medication non-adherence. Randomly sampled one hundred and fifty two (152) outpatients suffering from non-comorbid hypertension, visiting the consultant outpatient clinic of the cardiology unit of the department of medicine, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria were interviewed using a self-administered pre-tested structured, mostly closed ended questionnaire. Data analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16 for windows. Adherence was measured on a 12-point scale, recorded a mean score of 9.37 + 1.22. The study participants had a mean age of 49.29 + 1.04 years. The adherence level was 85.5%. There was a significant association between adherence and age, marital status, tribe, state of origin, cost of antihypertensive medications, number of antihypertensive medications, age/gender with P < 0.01. Major reasons for non-adherence were feeling worse (side effects of the antihypertensive medications), and feeling better with P < 0.01. In conclusion, this study revealed a high level of adherence among the study participants.