The Relationship between Health Literacy and Medication Adherence in a Hypertensive Patient Population

Background: Medication adherence plays a key role in the management of chronic diseases. Low health literacy leads to failure in disease management and medication adherence. Aims: The present study was carried out to investigate the relationship between health literacy and medication adherence in hypertensive patients. Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional study design was used. Setting: The population of this consisted of 101 hypertensive patients were referred to the Internal Diseases and Cardiology Outpatient Clinics of a hospital in Cyprus between June and August 2017. Method: The 'Descriptive Information Form,' 'Commitment to Medical Treatment/Adherence Self-Efficacy Scale' and 'Adult Health Literacy Scale' were used as data collection tools. Percentages, the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test and Spearman's rho correlation coefficient were used for statistical analyses of the data. Results: The findings showed that the patients had low levels of medication adherence and health literacy. A moderate, significant, positive, linear relationship was found between the level of health literacy and medication adherence among hypertensive patients. The level of health literacy was found to be lower among patients with a low level of education, women, and hypertensive patients with disease duration of 5-9 years. Conclusion: In conclusion, medication adherence among hypertensive patients can be elevated by increasing their level of health literacy. To ensure medication adherence, future studies should aim to develop, implement and evaluate interventions to increase the level of health literacy.