Treatment adherence of Chinese patients with hypertension: a longitudinal study.
BACKGROUND
There is no research concerning treatment adherence and correlated factors using longitudinal design in China.


OBJECTIVE
This article investigated the treatment adherence of patients with hypertension and examined determinants of adherence, with a focus on changes of adherence and psychosocial factors over 1 year.


METHODS
A longitudinal design was adopted to facilitate the survey of patients with hypertension across two time points.


RESULTS
The results demonstrated that treatment adherence of hypertensive patients improved over 1 year follow-up. The blood pressure values of hypertensive patients decreased at time 2. The regression analysis found that time 1 treatment adherence, social support, education and duration of diagnosis were significant predictors of treatment adherence at time 2, accounting for 26% of the total variance. Time 1 treatment adherence explained 15% of the variance, social support 7%, education 3% and duration of diagnosis 1%.


CONCLUSIONS
The effective strategies targeted patients at risk are suggested to be necessary and should be designed according to the factors affecting adherence.
School of Nursing, Guangzhou Medical College, Guangzhou 510180, China. Electronic address: mawinter@126.com.
Chunhua
C
Ma
Shaoxian
S
Chen
Ying
Y
Zhou
Chunfeng
C
Huang
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000628:therapy*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012944:Social Support
Chronic disease; Healthcare management; Hypertension; Treatment adherence