Medication adherence and its associated factors among hypertensive patients attending the Debre Tabor General Hospital, northwest Ethiopia

Medication adherence and its associated factors among hypertensive patients attending the Debre Tabor General Hospital, northwest Ethiopia Destaw Fetene Teshome,1 Kindie Bantie Bekele,1 Yohannes Ayanaw Habitu,2 Abebaw Addis Gelagay2 1Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 2Department of Reproductive Health, Institute of Public Health, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia Background: Medication adherence is an important predictor of optimal blood pressure control; hence, it significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and associated deaths. However, studies on medication adherence and its associated factors are scarce. Thus, this study aimed to assess adherence to antihypertensive medications and identify associated factors at Debre Tabor General Hospital, northwest Ethiopia.Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 346 participants. A structured questionnaire adapted from the World Health Organization (WHO) STEPwise approach was used to collect data. Medication adherence was measured by the four-item Morisky–Green–Levine Scale, with a score ≥3 defined as “good adherence”. Data were entered using Epi Info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive and summary statistics were used. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were also carried out.Results: A total of 337 hypertensive patients participated in the study. Three-quarters (75.1%) of the participants were found to be adherent to their medication therapy. The multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that urban residence (adjusted odd ratio [AO