Psychosocial and behavioral correlates of self-efficacy in treatment adherence in older patients with comorbid hypertension and type 2 diabetes

BACKGROUNDAdhering to clinical prescriptions is known to protect against the effects of uncontrolled hypertension and of acute and chronic cardiovascular diseases, including diabetes. Contextually, positive associations between self-care behaviors and psychological constructs, such as self -efficacy, are widely acknowledged in the literature. However, still little is known about the psychological factors underlying the patient's self-efficacy. This study aimed to investigate the psychosocial and behavioral correlates of self-efficacy related to treatment adherence in older patients with co morbid hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus.PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDUREItalian and Polish patients (a 65 years; N = 180) consecutively responded to self-report questionnaires measuring psycho social (i.e., beliefs about medicines, perceived physician's communication effectiveness, medication-specific social support, self-efficacy) and behavioral factors (i.e., pharmacological adherence, medications refill adherence, intentional non-adherence) related to treatment adherence. Between group comparisons and regression analyses were performed.RESULTSFisher's least significant difference (LSD) test showed significant differences between the Italian and Polish groups in all questionnaires (p < .01) with the Italian patients reporting more satisfactory scores. Younger age (0 = .08, p = .045), female gender (0 = 1.03, p = .042), higher medication refills adherence (0 =-.07, p = .024), lower intentional non-adherence (0 =-.03, p = .009), positive beliefs about medications (0 = .13, p < .001), better quality of communication with the physician (0 = .09, p < .001), and stronger perceived medication-specific social support (0 = .06, p = .001) were significantly associated with self-efficacy related to treatment adherence.CONCLUSIONSFuture research and interventions should leverage psycho social and behavioral factors to address self-efficacy contributing to enhancing adherence to clinical prescriptions.