Siriporn Itthakom. Factors related to caregivers' help with medication adherence of persons with hypertension . Master's Degree(Community Health Nursing). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2006.
Factors related to caregivers' help with medication adherence of persons with hypertension
Abstract:
The purposes of this cross-sectional and correlational research were: 1) to describe
caregivers in terms of background characteristics, knowledge about hypertension, perception
of hypertension, social support, and caregivers’ help with medication adherence of persons
with hypertension; 2) to describe demographic characteristics and medication adherence of
persons with hypertension; and 3) to examine caregivers’ factors related to caregivers’ help
with medication adherence of persons with hypertension. The participants were 99 pairs of
caregivers and persons with hypertension who received treatment from the hypertension clinic,
at Donmoddaeng hospital, Tahmeung primary care unit, and Dongbang primary care unit, in
Donmoddaeng district, Ubon Ratchathani province.
The caregivers’ average age was 45.3 years old. The majority of them were female (65.7%) and
had finished elementary school (65.7%). About 74.4% of them were healthy. Nearly half reported they
were children of persons with hypertension (47.5%). Almost all reported a very good patientcaregiver
relationships (85.9%). Their average duration of care was about 47.9 months. They
had poor to moderate knowledge about hypertension (M = 13.8, S.D. = 4.8), moderate
perceived severity of hypertension (M = 5.3, S.D. = 2.5), high perceived benefits of
medication adherence (M = 5.4, S.D. = 1.9), low perceived barriers of medication adherence
(M = 3.8, S.D. = 2.9), and high social support (M = 224.7, S.D. = 49.6). They helped their
patients with medication adherence by preparing medication (47.5%), reminding patients
when to take medication (87.9%), and accompanying them to clinic (84.9%). The scores of
help with medication adherence were low to moderate (M = 4.5, S.D. = 3.0). The persons
with hypertensions’ average age was 65.3 years old. A majority of them were female (71.7%) and
had completed elementary school (87.9%). They revealed duration of disease range from 3 months
to 21 years with a mean of 4.2 years. About 51.5% received 1 type of antihypertensive
medication. About 57.6% prescribed daily medication frequency 1 time per day. About
52.5% had number of pill per day ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 tablets. About 89.9% of them had
good medication adherence (≥ 80%). Gender, patient-caregiver relationship, and caregivers’
perceived benefits of medication adherence demonstrated a significant relationship to
caregivers’ help with medication adherence (r = -.211, p < .05), (r = .303, p < .01), and (r =
.221, p < .05) respectively.
These findings can be useful for health care providers to plan for interventions to
enhance medication adherence of persons with hypertension by increasing capability of the
caregivers to help them with medication adherence. The caregiver should be encouraged to
have better perceived benefits of medication adherence, so that they increase help with
medication adherence of persons with hypertension.