Assessment of Drug Adherence and Prescription Pattern of Hypertensive Patient's in a Rural Community of Ludhiana

Hypertension is inadequately controlled in most patients due to poor treatment adherence. Not much is known about the anti hypertensive drug prescription pattern in rural areas.

The present study was conducted to assess the drug adherence and prescribing patterns of antihypertensive in hypertensive patients and adherence of prescribing pattern with existing guidelines.

The cross sectional study was conducted in the rural field practice area of Community Medicine department of Christian Medical College, over a period of one year. A house to house survey of 214 diagnosed hypertensive patients was conducted using a predesigned pretested structured questionnaire. After completing the interview, two blood pressure readings were recorded in sitting position in the right arm using an electronic BP monitoring device. Treatment adherence was assessed using Morisky Green Levine Scale. The data was entered and analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2010 and Epi Info 7.14.

Only 4.7% of respondents achieved blood pressure control with treatment. Respondents on monotherapy had higher treatment adherence than those on combination therapy.