Relationship between family and social support and adherence to treatment among outpatient hypertensives in an urban hospital

Background: The study aims to determine the correlation between family/social support and adherence to treatment in hypertensive patients.Methods: This is a cross sectional study. Patients who met the inclusion criteria were recruited by systematic random sampling technique. A physical examination was done to determine their blood pressure, questionnaires were administered to elicit sociodemographic characteristics, Family APGAR, Social support and adherence scores. Data collected was analyzed with Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS)-15.Results: A total of 120 data sets were analyzed. The mean age of the patients was 56 years ±11.6 with 60% of the patients being females. The mean duration of hypertension was 8±7 years and the mean number of antihypertensive medication they were on was 2±1. Majority (94%) of the patients had a caring and supportive relationship. Mean adherence score was 1.55±2.06. Adherence rate was 52.5%. Delay in refill (18.1%), mainly due to financial constraints was the commonest reason for non-adherence. There was a significant correlation between age group, previous history of symptom, family function and social support with adherence. There was however no significant correlation between gender, marital status, duration of hypertension, family member with hypertension and number of medications with adherence.Conclusion: Medication adherence was good in this population of hypertensives. Family and social support were significant predictors of good medication adherence.Keywords: Hypertension; Medication adherence; Family function; Social support; Family APGAR; Outpatient