Abstract

EFFECT OF POLYPHARMACY ON MEDICATION ADHERENCE IN PATIENTS WITH HYPERTENSION

Jayalakshmi Peethambaran*, Dr. Joga sasidar, Jesna Jain, Jibin J. Varghese, Jomily Joseph

ABSTRACT

Background: Poly-pharmacy, defined by the World Health Organization as "the administration of many drugs at the same time or the administration of an excessive number of drugs" is frequent among the elderly as they often suffer from chronic diseases with concomitant pathologies. World Health Organization (WHO) defined adherence as “the extent to which a person’s behavior and/or life style changes corresponds with agreed recommendations from a health care provider.Hypertension is a silent killer because it has no early significant symptoms, but creates an extra load on the heart and blood vessels. Objective: To determine the medication adherence in patients with hypertension. Methods And Methodolgy: Effect of poly-pharmacy on medication adherence in patients with Hypertension was conducted in MIMS, Mandya. The study is a cross sectional descriptive study and the patients including inclusion criteria were enrolled to the study and the research period was about 6 months. The data collection form which was made by department of clinical pharmacy was used for collecting the details. This form mainly contains demographic details, current medication, past medical and medication history, and other relevant data needed for present study were collected from patient’s progress records, treatment chart. Results: Out of 200 patients 57 were Hypertensive patients. Males were found to be more (54%) when compared to females (46%). Majority of patients were fall in the age group of 58-67(40.5%), out of which 51.85% were males and 48.15% were females. The total majority of Hypertensive patients were likely to fall in the age group of >68. The medication adherence was found to be least in the age group of more than 58 years and patients in the age group of 18-27 years showed the highest medication adherence. Conclusion: According to the result, the medication adherence was found to be least in the age group of more than 58 years. Therefore we found that as age progress, medication adherence declines and poly-pharmacy was found to be more in geriatrics.

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