Therapeutic Compliance Among Hypertension Patients In Selected Polyclinics In The Ablekuma –South Sub Metro Of The Greater Accra Region

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: The global incidence of hypertension is fast rising and has become a challenge to both developed and developing countries; it is one of the most prevalent non– communicable diseases accounting for a greater burden of diseases in Ghana. Several factors have been noted in the literature to possibly account for low compliance especially for chronic diseases such as hypertension. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to determine the patient, health system, disease and therapy related factors that influence compliance and also the proportion of patients who comply on medicinal and non-medicinal therapy. METHOD: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Dansoman and Mamprobi polyclinics among 356 hypertensive patients 18 years and above, quantitative data were analyzed using STATA version 14, Pearson Chi- square test was used to identify statistically significant association in a bivariate analysis. A multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the strength of association between the independent variables and the outcome variable. RESULTS :This study found statistical significant association between patient age ( P value - 0.016), involvement in physical exercise ( P value -0.000), length of patient diagnosis ( P value - 0.000), blood pressure category ( P value -0.009), patient waiting time ( P value -0.000) and medication adherence/compliance.. About 86% of respondents had good medication compliance and just about 46.3% routinely having exercise as part of management and about 41.3% making modification to their salt intake and about 25.3% making changes to saturated fat consumption. CONCLUSION: Overall majority of respondents had good medication compliance and with less than 50% of the respondents engaging in non-medicinal therapies like dietary modification and exercise