Abstract
Purpose
Medication adherence (MA) is a key factor for hypertensive patients’ blood pressure control and forgetfulness is one of the main reasons that cause medication non-adherence. If effective, low-cost reminder package (LCRP) has great potentials for large-scale promotion. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of combining LCRP and health education to improve MA among hypertensive patients.
Patients and methods
A clustered randomized controlled trial was performed in Beijing. A total of 518 hypertensive patients recruited from 8 community health care centers were randomized to receive LCRP combined with case-based health education or usual care. Randomization was performed at community level. Multilevel modeling was used to evaluate the study effect.
Results
MA scores did not differ significantly at baseline between the intervention group and the control group. The results of multilevel modeling indicated that MA scores increased more in the intervention group, and the intervention effect on MA was 0.287 (95% CI: [0.103, 0.471], P=0.002). Patients’ systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were not improved (SBP: difference=0.536, 95% CI [−3.207, 4.278]; DBP: difference=−0.927, 95% CI [−3.283, 1.428]).
Conclusion
LCRP combined with case-based health education could significantly improve hypertensive patients’ MA.
Acknowledgments
We appreciate the efforts of the community health workers in Shunyi District, who have contributed considerable energy and time in this study. This work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Beijing (Grant No. 7162105).
Abbreviation list
SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; MA, Medication Adherence; LCRP, Low cost reminder package.
Disclosure
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.