Polypharmacy and affecting factors in hypertension patients who admitted to Pamukkale University Hospital Cardiology outpatient clinic

Abstract

Purpose: Hypertension is considered to be an important public health problem in many developing countries where epidemiological transformation is the transition from infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases. The prevalence of hypertension is between 25% and 55%. In addition, hypertension patients are among the risk groups of polypharmacy. Polypharmacy is considered to be an important health problem all over the world because it decreases patient compliance. Material and method: This study was conducted with 320 hypertension patients. The questionnaire consisted of 21 questions. In addition, the treatment compliance was detected with the Drug Treatment Alert Scale. The evaluation of the data recorded in the questionnaire form pertaining to the individuals included in the research, was accomplished using Windows 17 program SPSS. In all the statistical analysis p<0.05 value was accepted “meaningful”. Results: Of the participants, 153 (47.8%) were female and 78.3% were married. The median age was 63 years. The rate of four or more medication usage per day was 54.4% and five or more medication usage per day was found as 44.4%. There was a statistically significant difference between the participants' age, education status, coexisting chronic disease presence and duration of hypertension. Having a low education level, having an additional chronic disease and having long-term hypertension was determined as independent factors affecting polypharmacy. Conclusion: We detected that polypharmacy exists in over more than half hypertension patients who applied to cardiology outpatient clinic. The risk factors identified for polypharmacy are low education level, comorbidity, and long follow-up due to hypertension.