The association between medication adherence and blood pressure control among hypertensive patients attending a tertiary hospital in south-south Nigeria

Background: Hypertension is a common disease among adults. It is a global health condition that requires drugs and lifestyle changes for its management and control. Despite this, the rate of hypertension related deaths has been increasing in prevalence across the world. The purpose of this paper is to determine the association between medication adherence and blood pressure control among hypertensive patients in Family Medicine Clinic, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State, Nigeria.Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted in Family Medicine Clinic, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Systematic sampling method was used to select 400 participants. A structured questionnaire namely Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-4 was adapted and used for data collection in this study. Bivariate analysis was done using Chi square test and odd ratio.Results: A total of 400 (118 males and 282 females) adult hypertensive patients participated in this study. Majority of the participants had poor adherence to medication treatment 71.2% (n=285), whereas the remaining ones 28.8% (n=115) had good adherence. Similarly, most of the participants, 77.2% (n=309) had poor blood pressure control while the remainder 22.8% (n=91) experienced the opposite. The bivariate analysis showed that good medication adherence was significantly associated with good blood pressure control.Conclusions: Medication adherence was low especially among those with poor blood pressure control. This link was statistically significant therefore doctor-patient interaction with emphasis on medication adherence is advocated.

Pay satisfaction among doctors and nurses in a tertiary hospital in South-South Nigeria

Background: Employee pay is an important area in human resources management which influences individual behaviour including absenteeism in organizations. Pay satisfaction is a primary concern to employees because of its importance in satisfying their economic needs. The research was conducted to determine the occurrence and factors affecting employee pay satisfaction among doctors and nurses working in a tertiary hospital. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study design was used for this research on a sample of 320 doctors and nurses in a tertiary hospital that were selected using stratified sampling technique. An interviewer-administered questionnaire containing pay satisfaction details amongst others was used to collect data from the respondents. The data was analysed using statistical package for social sciences version 22 and statistical significance was set at 0.05. The results were presented in tables.Results: The prevalence of pay satisfaction in this study was 16.9%. Specifically, monthly earning (p=0.003) and job category (p=0.008) were found to be significantly associated with pay satisfaction.Conclusions: This study showed that the prevalence of respondents that were satisfied with their pay was low. There is need to apply practical measures that will improve pay satisfaction among doctors and nurses so as to improve productivity in the health sector