OBJECTIVE: The main aim was to find the prevalence of therapy adherence by means of self-reporting, therapy aims and its association to determined variables. Secondary aims were to evaluate the Morisky test and assess the patients' understanding of hypertension. DESIGN: A descriptive crossover study using questionnaires and stratified random sampling. SETTING: Nursing stations (NS) at a rural teaching Health Centre. PATIENTS: A sample of 122 hypertense patients, who were not diabetic, were treated pharmacologically, were over 25 and had attended the NS for at least 6 months. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: 64.8% prevalence of adherence (CI 0.558 p < = 0.738). 99% were very satisfied with their relationship to the nursing staff, although their understanding of AHT was very low. 12% were wrongly diagnosed or over-prescribed. No statistical significance was found between adherence by self-reporting and the independent variables, but it was between adherence by control and the number of doses: p < 0.05, OR = 0.22, CI 0.8; 0.05. Those patients with three doses had worse control than those with one. Test sensitivity = 0.843; Specificity = 0.16. CONCLUSIONS: A profile of the patient adhering to treatment could not be defined: the adherence rate was situated at the upper limit of other studies. The AHT procedure should have been checked in order to bring into line diagnosis and treatment criteria and to implement special adherence measures in those patients with over two daily doses. There was no evidence that adherence improved in line with time spent at the NS. The test did not predict adherence with accuracy.
OBJECTIVE: The main aim was to find the prevalence of therapy adherence by means of self-reporting, therapy aims and its association to determined variables. Secondary aims were to evaluate the Morisky test and assess the patients' understanding of hypertension. DESIGN: A descriptive crossover study using questionnaires and stratified random sampling. SETTING: Nursing stations (NS) at a rural teaching Health Centre. PATIENTS: A sample of 122 hypertensepatients, who were not diabetic, were treated pharmacologically, were over 25 and had attended the NS for at least 6 months. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: 64.8% prevalence of adherence (CI 0.558 p < = 0.738). 99% were very satisfied with their relationship to the nursing staff, although their understanding of AHT was very low. 12% were wrongly diagnosed or over-prescribed. No statistical significance was found between adherence by self-reporting and the independent variables, but it was between adherence by control and the number of doses: p < 0.05, OR = 0.22, CI 0.8; 0.05. Those patients with three doses had worse control than those with one. Test sensitivity = 0.843; Specificity = 0.16. CONCLUSIONS: A profile of the patient adhering to treatment could not be defined: the adherence rate was situated at the upper limit of other studies. The AHT procedure should have been checked in order to bring into line diagnosis and treatment criteria and to implement special adherence measures in those patients with over two daily doses. There was no evidence that adherence improved in line with time spent at the NS. The test did not predict adherence with accuracy.