Cross sectional study: health literacy towards adherence to medication for hypertension patients

Abstract

Background: Most people with hypertension feel healthy and energetic; this situation is dangerous and can cause death in the community. Non-compliance is a complex phenomenon often occurring in health care, especially in hypertensive patients. Medication adherence is very important so that complications do not occur, but many hypertensive patients still do not comply with medication. This study aimed to analyze the correlation between health literacy and adherence to medication for hypertension patients in the COVID-19 pandemic era at Private Hospital Surabaya. Methods: This research design was correlative analytic with a cross-sectional approach. This study’s population was hypertensive patients treated at Hospital D with a simple random sampling of 74 people. The instruments used in this study were Health Literacy Scale (HLS-EU-Q16) to measure health literacy and adherence to medication by using Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8). The Rank Spearman test used data analysis to measure health literacy with medication adherence. Results: The results showed a relationship between health literacy and adherence to medication for hypertension patients at Private Hospital Surabaya with a level (p=0.000). Conclusion: Findings from the study suggest that improving health literacy important for support to be more responsible in hypertension medication.