title: Why don't patients return for antihypertensive treatment in Soweto?
abstract: Out of an inception cohort of 91 newly treated hypertensive patients at a Soweto polyclinic only 16 (18%) attended regularly during the year after their first visit. Visits were made to the homes of the 75 non-compliant patients between 18 and 21 months after the patient's first visit to establish the reasons for non-attendance. Five of the 75 (7%) had died, 16 (21%) were not available for an interview and 54 (72%) were interviewed. These 54 patients gave many different reasons for not returning regularly. The most common reasons were: (i) they did not remember being told that they had hypertension and that they needed to return for more treatment--14 patients; (ii) they had been away from Soweto--7 patients; (iii) they had been unable to take time off work--6 patients; (iv) they considered themselves to be regular attenders--5 patients; (v) they had not felt ill--5 patients; and (vi) they experienced unwanted side-effects--4 patients. Only 2 patients said that they had received regular treatment elsewhere. In the light of these results different approaches designed to improve both attendance and medication compliance are being developed and evaluated.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D010352:Patient Dropouts