Patient adherence to antihypertensive medications during arterial hypertension therapy

This study aims to evaluate medication adherence in hypertensive patients. The Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) is a commonly used survey. It has been validated in patients with chronic diseases, providing reliable results on drug adherence. All data were collected through face-to-face survey at Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital. The selection criteria were respondent age over 18 years, diagnosis of arterial hypertension and use of blood pressure lowering medications for at least six months. MMAS-8 was evaluated against measured arterial pressure using manual blood pressure monitor. The study involved 81 participants with hypertension - 31 women and 50 men - all of whom had been taking antihypertensive medicines for at least six months. The mean age of total respondents was 66.6 years, where 64.6 years and 69.8 years for male and female, respectively. The average level of adherence was 6.57 (SD = 1.61): the adherent group consisted of 66 respondents. The prevalence of non-adherence to medications was 18.52%. Adherent respondents in age 65 and older with systolic blood pressure (SBP) below and above 140 mm Hg consisted of 24 and 15, respectively. In spite that respondents younger than 65 years with SBP below and above 130 mm Hg consisted of 13 and 14, respectively. While non-adherent respondents in age 65 and older with SBP below and above 140 mm Hg consisted of 4 and 2, respectively. Along with non-adherent respondents younger than 65 years with SBP below and above 130 mm Hg consisted of 13 and 14, respectively. We found poor correlation between patient adherence to medications using MMAS-8 scale in different age groups to target clinic blood pressure. Further investigation of the concentration of blood pressure lowering medications in patient’s blood would give more reliable results about adherence to medication.