Factors Associated with Non-Adherence to Antihypertensive Medication among Hypertensive Patients in Community

Background: Hypertension is one of the common non-communicable health problems. While pharmacologic intervention is the most efficient way to control hypertension; non-adherence to medication is accounted as a significant cause for complications. This study was to address and to determine the magnitude of non-adherence among hypertensive patients by summarizing the associated risks factors among patients in the community level. Method: This is a cross-sectional study conducted on hypertensive patients who visited the community health clinic at Dhading, Nepal on 9th and 10th June 2018 using a pre-structured questionnaire. Patients were sampled by nonprobability purposive sampling method. Effect of age, gender, marital status, employment, education level, presence of diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, current smoker, and family history of hypertension were analyzed by the compliance of antihypertensive drugs using frequency distribution, chi-square test, and logistic regression. For all of the analysis p-value < 0.5 was considered as significant. Results: 150 patients were included in the study, out of whom 48 patients were found adherent and 102 patients non-adherent to antihypertensive medication. Out of total population 46% (n=69) were male and 54% (n=81) were female with no significant association between compliant and noncompliant groups (OR= 1.599, p>0.05). Mean age of patients in complaint group was 57 years and in the non-compliant group was 52 years with an odds ratio of 0.96 (p