Non-adherence to Antihypertensive Medication and Its Associated Factors Among Cardiac Patients at Alshaab Referred Clinic, November 2017

Background: Non-adherence to antihypertensive drugs is identified to have negative impact on cardiovascular outcome. Various studies have been conducted on this issue worldwide but data about medications adherence and its associated factors in Sudan are limited. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to identify the prevalence and factors associated with non-adherence to antihypertensive medications among cardiac patients in Sudan. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 202 patients by total coverage of all diagnosed hypertensive patients with cardiac disease who attended the referred clinic at Alshaab teaching hospital during the study period from November 5th to December 7th, 2017. Data were collected by direct interview of the patients using structured questionnaire, clinical characteristics of the patients were obtained from the medical records, WISEWOMAN medications adherence questionnaire for hypertension was used to assess the level of medication adherence. Descriptive and multivariate logistic regression was used for data analysis, using SPSS version 20. Results: Out of 202 participants, 140 (69.3%) were female, the mean age of the participants was 60.74 ± 13.6. The study revealed that 41.6% of the patients were nonadherent to their antihypertensive medications, the level of non-adherence was found to be significantly associated with young age (p-value < 0.012), high level of education (p-value < 0.05), and using more than one pharmacy to get the medications (p-value < 0.00); after logistic regression analysis, non-adherence was found to be significantly associated with using more than one pharmacy to get the medications (p-value < 0.00). The level of non-adherence in our study is found to be corresponding to the findings of other similar local, regional, and international studies, which have reported that non-adherence of medication ranged between 39.5% and 55.9%. Other factors in different studies were found to be significantly associated with non-adherence such as gender, duration of hypertension, duration between follow-up visits to physician and number of drugs

Awareness about stroke among high and low risk individuals in Khartoum, Sudan: a cross-sectional study

Introduction: stroke causes 10.17% of all deaths in Sudan. Levels of stroke awareness amongst patients in Sudan are unknown. The aim of this study is to assess the level of awareness of stroke risk factors, symptoms and immediate management amongst high and low risk patients. Methods: using descriptive cross-sectional study, participants of high and low risk groups were recruited from the referral clinics of three tertiary hospitals in Khartoum. Data was collected through interviews using structured questionnaire. Knowledge score was devised to assess the awareness about stroke symptoms, risk factors, and management. Results: of the 286 participants, 150 were females. The mean age was 44.66 years. About 79.4% reported that stroke is preventable. Hypertension was the most identified risk factor (71.6%) while genetics (0.2%) and alcohol (0.2%) were the least identified risk factors. Twenty-seven percent (27.6%) did not know any stroke risk factors, while 32.9% did not know any warning symptoms. Paralysis of one side of the body was the most identified warning symptom (30.7%). The mean awareness score was 21.9 ± 3.4 among the high risk group vs. 22.1 ± 3.6 among the low risk group with no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = .717). The mean awareness score was statistically associated with the level of education (p < 0.001). Conclusion: the awareness level was relatively low and not statistically different between high and low risk groups. We recommend the development of an effective educational program for the whole community