Doctor-Patient Communication to Improve Adherence to Anti- Hypertensive Treatment

Authors

  • Zulfiquer Ahmed Amin Department of Health Economics, Armed Forces Medical Institute, Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • MI Kabir Department of Epidemiology, National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dhaka, Bangladesh;
  • JH Karami Department of Statistics, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • N Nahar Ma-Moni MNCSP Save the Children, Dhaka, Bangladesh

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3329/bmrcb.v44i3.39938

Keywords:

Treatment adherence, Medication compliance, Doctor-patient communication

Abstract

Background: Non-adherence to medication increases patient’s risk of morbidity, mortality and economic wastage of scare medical resources. This study was conducted to assess the role of doctor-patient communication and duration of consultation, as tools to improve adherence to hypertension treatment.

Methods: Data of this cross-sectional study were collected by face to face interview and document review at Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Dhaka among 253 conveniently recruited hypertensive patients attending outpatient department during July 2016 to June 2017. Mean-age of the respondents was 49.2 (±10.4) years, mostly married male (54.9% male, 95.3% married). Mean consultation duration experienced by the respondents was 5.3 (± 1.3) minutes. Among the participants, 63.64% experienced effective communication, 66% were adherent and 34% were non-adherent to medication. Among the respondents with effective communication, 92.5% were adherent to medication. On the contrary, among the respondents with ineffective communication, 80.4% were non-adherent.

Results: Duration of consultation had significant association with adherence to hypertension treatment (p<0.001). Association between communication and adherence to medication was highly significant (p<0.001). Binary logistic regression revealed that respondents were 3.23 times more adherent to medication with favorable response to the item- ‘Doctor gave me as much information as I wanted’ (p = 0.041); and 10.24 times with favorable response to the item- ‘Doctor checked to be sure that I understood everything’(p=0.006). Patients’ faithfulness in carrying out prescription and proscriptions correctly, depends on the adequacy and accuracy of patient’s knowledge of what they were supposed to do and on their motivation.

Conclusion: Thus, it is necessary to formulate interventions to scale up communication skill of the physicians, and devise effective ways to educate patients on medication of chronic diseases. Further studies on characteristics of consultation to make it motivating and more effective may be conducted.

Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull 2018; 44: 145-151

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Abstract
49
PDF
55 ONLINE VIEW
0

Downloads

Published

2019-01-23

How to Cite

Amin, Z. A., Kabir, M., Karami, J., & Nahar, N. (2019). Doctor-Patient Communication to Improve Adherence to Anti- Hypertensive Treatment. Bangladesh Medical Research Council Bulletin, 44(3), 145–151. https://doi.org/10.3329/bmrcb.v44i3.39938

Issue

Vol. 44 No. 3 (2018)

Section

Research Papers

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms.

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication.

Creative Commons Licence
Articles in the Bangladesh Medical Research Council Bulletin are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).