Araş t ırma/Research Article TAF Prev Med Bull 2010; 9(2):87-92 Impact of Patients ’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on Hypertension on Compliance with Antihypertensive Drugs in a Resource-poor Setting

AIM: The study objective was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices on hypertension of 240 adult Nigerian Africans with hypertension and their impact on compliance with antihypertensive drugs METHOD: It was a descriptive survey of 240 consented consecutive adult patients with hypertension who attended the Cardiology Clinic of the Federal Medical Centre, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria, between April 2008 and March 2009. The hospital is rural health institution in south west Nigeria RESULTS: One hundred and fourteen patients (47.5%) were men and 126 (52.5%) were women. Mean age was 48.8±13.2 years. Mean systolic and diastolic BP were 156.8±25.1 mmHg and 98.4±18.7 mmHg respectively. Only less than half (47.1%) showed good knowledge of their hypertension. However, 141 (58.8%) possessed good knowledge of their antihypertensive drugs. Knowledge of hypertension was better in women than in men (59.3 % vs 40.7%, p=0.014). Compliance to medications was good in only 77 (32.1%) of the patients. The reasons attributed to included: poor knowledge of the disease and ignorance of the need for long-term treatment (95, 32.6%); high cost of medications (63, 21.7%); religious practices and cultural beliefs (37