FACTORS ASSOCIATED TO PATIENTS' NONCOMPLIANCE WITH HYPERTENSION TREATMENT

The greatest challenge posed by Systemic Hypertension (SH) is related to patients' compliance with treatment. Thus, this study aimed to determine attendance of these patients to medical appointments and the percentage of adherence to medication and non-medication regimens, and also identify the main reasons hypertensive patients report for non-adherence. This is a descriptive study with 68 hypertensive patients (64.71% women with average age of 63.9 years) at a teaching outpatient clinic. The instruments used for data collection were: multiprofesional team care report form, the Morisky-Green test and telephone interview. The results show that 61.76% attended the medical consultations, 86.76% did not comply with the medication regimen and 85.29% did not comply with the non-medication regimen, reporting at least one non-healthy life habit. The emotional factor was the most reported (69.12%) among patients' reasons for non-adherence to treatment. The study can support interventions in care delivery to patients with systemic hypertension, with a view to improving their level of adherence and quality of life.