Abstract:
The purpose of this descriptive correlational research was to examine factors related to adherence to treatment among essential hypertensive patients in eastern region of Thailand. Two hundreds forty eight essential hypertensive patients were recruited randomly from out patient clinics of Prapokklao Hospital, Rayong Hospital, Chachengthao Hospital and Trat Hospital. Self-reported questionnaires including the demographic data questionnaire, the knowledge of hypertension questionnaire, the adherence to treatment questionnaire and the service of health care provider questionnaire were used to collect data from May on June 2006. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, including percentage, mean, standard deviation, mean percentage, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.The results revealed that1. Most of hypertensive patients had good medication adherence with a mean percentage of 93.92, and good adherence to lifestyle modification with a mean percentage of 82.862. There was low positive significant relationship between knowledge of hypertension and medication adherence at the level of .05 However the duration of service and the number of pills had low negative significant relationship with medication adherence at the level of .053. There were low positive significant relationship between age, knowledge of hypertension and adherence to lifestyle modification at the level of .054. There were no statistically significant relationship between gender, side effect of medication, time spent from home to a hospital, the frequency of medication use per day, and service of health care provider to medication adherence and adherence to lifestyle modification at the level of .05According to the results of this study, promoting adherence to treatment including medication adherence and adherence to lifestyle modification is important in blood pressure control among hypertensive patients. Health education focused on knowledge of hypertension, treatment, medication use and lifestyle modification with a treatment regiment must adjust in accordance with patients' daily lifestyle. Consequently, the blood pressure could be controlled and the occurrence of hypertensive complications could be prolong; this would result in improvement the hypertensive patients quality of life.