Barrier of Hypertensive Drugs among Patients in Tanzania: Case Study of Southern Highlands, Tanzania

Experience with patients shows that prescribed drugs for treating hypertension disease fail to work effectively, causing high mortality rates in African Ethnic types. This situation has resulted in the query as to why the situation exists. The study was conducted to investigate factors affecting the failure of hyper-tension drugs among patients suffering from the disease. Particularly, the study aimed at examining cultural, individual and financial factors affecting drug failure among Tanzania patients. The sample consisted of 300 respondents from Afya Medicare Specialized Clinic and Mbeya Referral hospital in Tan-zania. Questionnaires were distributed and interviews were conducted with pa-tients and their caretakers, doctors and nurses in both health centres. The study revealed that the drugs fail to provide relief to the patients because of the neg-ative attitude towards the consumption of the drugs in the belief that the dis-eases affected only rich people and developed countries. From the findings, it was concluded that education should be provided to the patients as well as their caretakers on the fact that the disease can affect anyone and emphasize preventive measures.