ADHERENCE OF SAUDI PATIENTS TO ANTIHYPERTENSIVE MEDICATIONS AND RELATED FACTORS: FINDINGS FROM A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Background: Low- adherence to antihypertensive medication is the reason for not achieving the target levels in controlling blood pressure. Aims: This study Aims to assess the level of adherence of patients with hypertension to their medications and to determine the main socio-demographic factors that associated with the medications non-adherence among patients in Saudi Arabia.

Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted online with a convenience sample of 399 Saudi Adults. We used Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS) and Adherence Barriers Questionnaire to collect data on socio-demographic factors and use of antihypertensive medications.

Results: We received 399 responses to our questionnaire with mean age of 39.44 years old (SD=12.46 years old). Most of the sample were female (68.7 %). The mean score of the sample were 4.23 (SD=2.44) where most of the sample (64.9 %) had low adherence level to their antihypertensive medications, while 30.3 % had moderate adherence and 4.8 % had high adherence rate. Moreover, we found a significant difference between female and male (p=0.009) where female seems to be more adherent to their medications than male (4.5 VS 3.65). Likewise, statistically significant associations were also found between number of medications taken for hypertension, suffering from other chronic disease and adherence to antihypertensive medications, where patients with one medication and those with no other chronic conditions were more adherent to antihypertensive medications. The most common barriers reported by patients to affect their adherence toward antihypertensive medications were running of pills, thought that medications are useless, not understanding of antihypertensive medications, depression and travelling.

Conclusions: We found low rate of adherence to antihypertensive medications among patients in Saudi Arabia. Our findings provide evidence on understanding the facilitators and barriers associated with adherence to antihypertensive medications in order to enforce public health interventions to promoting the optimal use of medications.

Keyword: HYPERTENSION, ADHERENCE, BARRIERS, MORISKY