Patient knowledge and adherence to anti-hypertensive medications in Saudi Arabia

Background: Adherence to anti-hypertensive medication is essential as it has been associated with better health outcomes. Aim: This study aims to assess the adherence of hypertensive patients to anti-hypertensive medications, and to correlate adherence with hypertension knowledge. Methods: This cross-sectional study, we used the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) questionnaire to assess adherence, and the Hypertension Fact Questionnaire (HFQ) to assess hypertension knowledge. We used the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests for inferential statistics, and Pearson correlation to investigate the correlation between the adherence and knowledge. Results: The study included 508 participants, of whom 55.5% were females. Age ranged from 18 to 90 years with an average of 56.9 +/- 13.7. Half of participants (50.2%) were married and 51.4% had a university degree or higher. Average MMAS-8 and HFQ scores among respondents with hypertension were 4.5 +/- 2.2, and 9.5 +/- 2.5, respectively. Our results showed significant association between adherence and educational level (p=0.032), and residency area (p=0.000). Hypertension knowledge was also associated with the type of residency of participants (p=0.001), marital status (p=0.001), source of HTN knowledge (p=0.046), nationality (p=0.001), and number of anti-hypertensive drugs used (p=0.046). Conclusion: Our study concludes that adherence to antihypertensive medication and hypertension knowledge were proportionally correlated. There is higher adherence among respondents with higher levels of education, residents of urban areas. Hypertension knowledge was better among Saudi nationals, residents of urban areas, singles, those receiving hypertension knowledge from social media, and those taking one or two antihypertensive medication.