Assessment of Hypertensive Patients' Illness Experience Using Patient-centred Consultation among Patients Seen in an Urban Family-practice Setting in Nigeria

Abstract

Objectives: The study aimed at determining the hypertensive patients' illness experience, using the patient-centred consultation approach in order to form a better partnership with the patients. Design: This was a cross-sectional hospital-based study using a semi-structured questionnaire that assessed the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. The respondents' fears about hypertension, ideas about its cause and expectations from consultation were explored. The response was based on a Likert scale. The data were analysed with the SPSS software version 15. Settings: This study was conducted at the GOPC, UCTH Calabar. The GOPC is the " window " of the Hospital. Subjects/participants: Two hundred and sixty eight hypertensive patients were recruited into the study. Results and Conclusions: The respondents expressed fear regarding most aspect of hypertension. Most (74.7%) agreed that hypertension could be caused by stress. A few participants gave non-biomedical views of the aetiology of hypertension, including attributing it to spiritual forces. Over three quarters of respondents (85.1%), expected their medications to give them corrective measures to hypertension. The study supports the fact that hypertensive patients have varying illness experiences that should be explored using the patient-centred consultation style and recommends that doctors should manage individual patients to suit the patients' unique experience. There was an established significant relationship between expectation and fears/ideas.