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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Background - Arterial hypertension constitutes a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment, which antihypertensive medication can prevent or minimize. Patients’ beliefs about their illness play an important role in blood pressure control, as they can determine behaviours that patients adopt to cope with their illness, namely adherence to antihypertensive medication. Objective - To identify patients’ perceptions of hypertension and assess associations between those beliefs and medication adherence. Methods - 63 hypertensive patients, 69.8 % females, aged 54-95 years (M = 69.02; SD = 10.07), 96.8 % of whom were diagnosed over a year previously and prescribed with antihypertensive medication completed the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) and a 7-item medication adherence measure (Medida de Adesão aos Tratamentos – MAT). Results - Most patients perceived their hypertension as a chronic and cyclical condition that can be controlled by their own behaviour and medication intake, and that elicits negative affective responses. Patients reported a high level of medication adherence (M = 5.41; SD = 0.55, with 7 as highest possible score) and a low frequency of nonadherent behaviours, with 20.6 % stating that they did not take medication because they forgot it. We found significant negative correlations between adherence and hypertension timeline (cyclical) (rs(63) = -0.27; p < 0.05), hypertension consequences (rs(63) = -0.50; p < 0.01) and emotional representations (rs(62) = -0.37; p < 0.01). Conclusions - These findings, suggesting an association between illness perceptions and non-adherence behaviours in hypertension, strengthen the importance of patient-centered interventions starting from patients’ beliefs, preferences and needs, could lead to a better understanding of illness and enhancing patients’ active engagement in blood pressure control.
Description
Keywords
Illness perception Medication adherence Hypertension Ageing
Citation
Guimarães T, Coelho A, Graça A, Silva AM, Fonseca AR. Illness perceptions and medication adherence in hypertension. In: 3rd IPLeiria’s International Health Congress – Health, Demographic Changes and Well-Being, May 6th-7th, 2016. BMC Health Serv Res. 2016;16(Suppl 3):O135.
Publisher
BioMed Central