The Relationship Between Knowledge and Drug Adherence in Hypertensive Patients: A Cross Sectional Study in UAE

Objectives: To Evaluate the relationship between Knowledge and Drug adherence in hypertensive patients in UAE. Methodology: A questionnaire was delivered to random sample of 385 hypertensive patients in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman. SPSS version 20 was used for data entry and analysis. Results: Out of the 385 patients, 353 (91.7%) had high knowledge value and scored within the high knowledge category while 32 (8.3%) was considered as having poor knowledge and scored within the poor knowledge category. On the other hand, 325 (84.4%) of the study participants showed good adherence to medication and scored within the positive attitude category while only 60 (15.6%) showed poor adherence to medication and scored within the negative attitude category. Spearman rank order correlation coefficient (rho) between total knowledge score and total adherence score was used to indicate the association between knowledge and adherence among the study participants. Conclusion: The result of the study clearly showed that there was positive correlation between knowledge and drug adherence among hypertensive patients in UAE. Despite this finding, it is believed that medication adherence is a multi-factorial phenomenon and knowledge is only one key of these factors