What is it about?
This study investigated how much people living with high blood pressure knew about their disease condition and prescribed medicines in Lesotho, and how health literacy affected treatment outcomes of high blood pressure. High blood pressure ranks as one of the leading causes of death among adults in Lesotho. Lesotho is a small landlocked country in southern Africa, with high prevalence of uncontrolled blood pressure among patients suffering from high blood pressure. The study interviewed people living with high blood pressure on what they knew about high blood pressure as well as their prescribed medicines during their monthly visits to collect their medicines and checked their blood pressure records. Knowledge of appropriate eating habits, exercising, avoiding stress, depression, and overexcitement were among the key lifestyle modifications sought for in those interviewed. In addition, knowledge of frequency of taking the prescribed medicines at appropriate amounts were also probed. Furthermore, the occurrence of bad practices such as increasing the frequency of taking medicines, doubling the amounts of medicines taken at a particular time, and stopping taking the medicines altogether when one felt better were some of the major issues included in the interview on knowledge of medicines. A high proportion of those interviewed had inadequate knowledge about high blood pressure and their medicines. Missing appointment dates was also common while the majority were not taking their medications as prescribed. Statistical tests revealed that inadequate knowledge of the prescribed medicines was a significant factor contributing to uncontrolled blood pressure.
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Why is it important?
These findings indicate that raising the awareness of the disease condition of high blood pressure and the prescribed medicines is an important intervention required in people living with high blood pressure.
Perspectives
If one has been diagnosed of high blood pressure, knowing the condition and the prescribed medicines very well is invaluable. This message is still not well understood by the public, particularly in developing countries, which apparently are worst affected by this disease.
Dr Eltony Mugomeri
Africa University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Knowledge of disease condition and medications among hypertension patients in Lesotho, Journal of the American Society of Hypertension, January 2016, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jash.2015.10.009.
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