Knowledge, attitude, and compliance with prescribed medication and recommended lifestyle modification of hypertensive patients in Kalibo, Aklan

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the knowledge, attitude and compliance with prescribed medication and recommended lifestyle modification of hypertensive patients in Kalibo, Aklan. Specifically this sought to determine the personal characteristics of hypertensive patients in terms of a) age, b) sex, c) educational attainment, d) civil status, e) family income and f) family history; determine their knowledge about hypertension and its regimen; determine their attitude towards the disease and its regimen; determine their compliance with prescribed medication and recommended lifestyle modification according to diet, vices and exercise; determine whether or not there is a significant relationship between personal characteristics according to age, sex, educational attainment, civil status, family income and family history and the knowledge about hypertension and its regimen of hypertensive patients; determine whether or not there is a significant relationship between personal characteristics according to age, sex, educational attainment, civil status, family income and family history and the attitude towards the disease and its regimen of hypertensive patients; determine whether or not there is a significant relationship between personal characteristics according to age, sex, educational attainment, civil status, family income and family history and the compliance with prescribed medication and recommended lifestyle modification according to diet, vices and exercise of hypertensive patients; determine whether or not there is a significant relationship between respondent’s knowledge and the attitude towards the disease and its regimen; determine whether or not there is a significant relationship between knowledge about hypertension and its regimen and the compliance with prescribed medication and recommended lifestyle modification according to diet, vices and exercise of hypertensive patients; determine whether or not there is a significant relationship between respondent’s attitude towards the disease and its regimen and the compliance with prescribed medication and recommended lifestyle modification according to diet, vices and exercise of hypertensive patients; determine whether or not there is a significant relationship between knowledge about hypertension and its regimen and the compliance with prescribed medication and recommended lifestyle modification according to diet, vices and exercise when the attitude towards the disease and its regimen of hypertensive patients is controlled. This study is a descriptive-correlational research which employed the one-shot survey design. There are 16 barangays in Kalibo, Aklan and the researcher selected 6 neighboring barangays near Poblacion Kalibo, namely; Poblacion, New buswang, Pook, Tigayon, Andagao and Bakhaw. The participants of this study focused on the two hundred forty (240) hypertensive respondents who were qualified in the inclusion criteria of the study. The computed sample size of 150 was determined through stratified random sampling and the sample size was proportionately allocated to the six barangays. In this study, the researcher developed an interview schedule to collect structured data which were based on the objectives of the study. The Chi-square and Gamma were used as statistical tools. The data were transformed into codes to facilitate computer processing and were processed through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The data showed that majority (46.7 percent) of the respondents was aged 65 years and above with a mean age of 53.82 years, female (62.7 percent), married (62.0 percent), college level of education (50.0 percent), had a family income (42.0 percent) of 10,000 Php and below and most of them (77.3 percent) had a family history of hypertension. Almost all of the respondents (88.0 percent) had “high” level of knowledge about hypertension and its regimen while a small percentage (12 percent) had an average knowledge. Majority (76.0 percent) of the respondents had very favorable attitude towards the disease and its regimen while nearly one-fourth (24 percent) had favorable attitude. More than half (52.0 percent) of the respondents had good compliance to prescribed medication. Moreover, most (57.3 percent) of the respondents had good compliance to recommended lifestyle modification with their diet while majority (78.7 percent) of the respondents also had a good compliance to recommended lifestyle modification with their vices. However, it is alarming to know that almost half (48.7 percent) of the respondents had poor compliance to recommended exercise. Among the 6 personal characteristics, only educational attainment and family income had a significant relationship to the knowledge of the respondents. On the other hand, respondents’ age, sex, civil status, and family history were found to be not significantly related to knowledge. Furthermore, only educational attainment and family income had a significantly related with the respondents’ attitude towards the disease and its regimen. With regards to compliance, there were no significant relationships between personal characteristics and a.) compliance to prescribed medication; and b.) compliance to recommended lifestyle modification in terms of diet and exercise. On the other hand, age, sex and civil status had a significant relationship on the compliance to recommended lifestyle modification in terms of their vices. With regards to their knowledge about hypertension and attitude, the test results showed that there is a significant relationship at significance level of 0.05. Furthermore, there were no significant relationships between knowledge and compliance with prescribed medication and recommended lifestyle modifications in terms of diet, vices and exercise. The respondents’ attitude towards hypertension had a significant relationship to the compliance with prescribed medication. However, there were no significant relationships between attitude and recommended lifestyle modifications in terms of diet, vices and exercise. Finally, among the relationships between knowledge about hypertension and compliance with prescribed medication and recommended lifestyle modifications in terms of diet, vices and exercise, the only significant relationship was between knowledge and compliance to exercise when attitude is controlled.