Assessment of Adherence to Medication among Cardiovascular Disease Outpatients in Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

Aims: To assess the levels of adherence among patients receiving cardiovascular disease(s) therapy, determine how reliable is the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale in assessing adherence in this population and identify demographic factors associated with adherence. Study design: A cross sectional survey Place and Duration of Study: Medical Out Patient Department of Jos University Teaching Hospital, between January and April, 2017. Methodology: Data was collected from all patients who were 18 years and above that were being managed for cardiovascular disease(s) who consented to participate in the research on each clinic day (Tuesdays) from February 2017 to April 2017, a total of 161 questionnaires were fill and retrieved. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Results: Only about 15% of the patients adhered well to their medications. There was statistically significant association between adherence and gender, occupation and marital status but no significant association between adherence, age and education. Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 was found to be reliable in assessing adherence in the population studied with Chrombach’s alpha 0.713. Conclusion: With this low level of adherence, there is high risk of failure to achieve optimum therapy outcome as well as increased risk of disease progression, occurrence of complications and high mortality rate. The Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 can be used in such population as in this study to assess adherence due to high reliability.