Beliefs and behaviours concerning hypertension and its treatment.

Abstract

Physicians treating hypertension today are equipped with abundant, effective antihypertensive medications. However, a number of individuals requiring antihypertensive medications choose either not to adhere to the prescribed regime or refrain from taking the prescribed treatment altogether (Burnier, 2005). Despite many years of study, questions still remain about why individuals make these choices (Petrie and Weinman, 1997). The aim of this study was to examme individuals' beliefs and behaviours concerning hypertension and its treatment. The research objectives were to examine participants' adherence to their antihypertensive medication and to explore participants' beliefs regarding hypertension and their antihypertensive treatment. A quantitative, cross sectional design was used. The sample, selected by convenience sampling, consisted of 38 individuals who were on antihypertensive medication and happened to be visiting a general practitioner within four different health centres on the day data was gathered. The response rate was 95%. A questionnaire, based on literature reviewed, was formulated by adapting and combining questions from 3 validated questionnaires used in previous similar studies. Adherence was measured using the Morisky's Adherence Scale (Morisky, Green and Levine, 1986). Questions derived from the Beliefs About Medication Questionnaire (Horne and Weinman, 1995), and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (Broadbent, Petrie, Main and Weinman, 2006) investigated individuals' beliefs. Simple descriptive statistics were used to analyse data. The overall findings revealed that the participants had a relatively good overall level of adherence. Forgetfulness seemed to be the problem mostly encountered by the participants for not adhering to their medications. Beliefs about the necessity to take prescribed antihypertensive medication were strong which may have been an indication that a certain level of knowledge regarding medication existed amongst the sample population, although there remains room for improvement. Levels of concern on medication were relatively low, which may have contributed to the good level of adherence. Nonetheless, the majority expressed that having to take medications disrupted their lifestyle. Individuals expressed a relatively high level of concern as regards their hypertension. However, participants were not emotionally affected by their condition. On the other hand, obesity, stress and an unhealthy diet were the 3 most mentioned causes believed to cause hypertension. From these findings, an attempt for future recommendations was done. Amongst these was that future studies be done on a larger scale and include a more representative sample. Moreover, health care professionals should be involved in implementing new client centred strategies tailored to address adherence issues. Education on hypertension and its treatment was also suggested to clarify myths and misconceptions individuals may have. Additionally, the setting up of a hypertension clinic should be considered which would serve to actively assess clients' beliefs about hypertension and its medications and help them improve medication adherence and blood pressure control.