Using The Health Belief Model (HBM) To Investigate The Predictors Of Medication Compliance Behavior Among Patients With Hypertension

Objective:To investigate the medication compliance behavior and its predictors among patientswith hypertension who visit community health service centers, thus to understand thecharacteristics of populations with hypertension, the cognitive level related to themedication compliance behavior, and the status quo for medication compliance behavior.And to explore the main predictors of medication compliance behavior among patients withhypertension using the Health Belief Model (HBM) in order to provide a reference forlaunching targeted health education activities, and for developing effective interventions.Methods:To investigate the medication compliance behavior and its predictors among patientswith hypertension who visit community health service centers, thus to understand thecharacteristics of populations with hypertension, the cognitive level related to themedication compliance behavior, and the status quo for medication compliance behavior.And to explore the main predictors of medication compliance behavior among patients withhypertension using the Health Belief Model (HBM) in order to provide a reference for launching targeted health education activities, and for developing effective interventions.Results:1. In this study, a total of448effective questionnaires were obtained, valid respondent ratewas96.14%. The mean age of the respondents was65years (SD=11.22),81.48%of whomranged from60to80.55.16%of the respondents were female; a majority of them (72.98%)had an education of junior middle school or above; and45.09%of them suffered from otherrelated diseases such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and coronary heart disease. Respondentssuffered relatively longer years from the disease (mean±SD,10.39±10.58years).2. Of the five measurement dimensions of Health Belief Model, the level of perceivedseriousness (mean±SD,8.51±1.58), perceived susceptibility (mean±SD,8.47±1.66),perceived benefits (mean±SD,8.54±1.22), and self-efficacy (mean±SD,8.99±1.81)were relatively high, while the level of perceived barriers (mean±SD,8.14±1.80) wasrelatively low in terms of the medication compliance behavior of patients withhypertension.3. The results of multiple linear regression analysis suggested that age, education, durationof disease, and whether or not suffering from other diseases may impact the health beliefsof patients with hypertension.4. The results of structural equation model suggested that self-efficacy affected medicationcompliance behavior most, and had a direct impact on it (standardized coefficient=0.77);Perceived benefits and perceived barriers had both direct (standardized coefficient=-0.12and-0.24, respectively) and indirect (standardized coefficient=0.20and-0.42, respectively)impacts on medication compliance behavior, and the overall impacts were0.08and-0.66,respectively. Both perceived seriousness and perceived susceptibility had an indirect impacton medication compliance behavior through self-efficacy and perceived benefits, and theirstandardized coefficients were0.19and0.22, respectively. The health belief model couldconstruct for80%of the variance in medication adherence behavior. Conclusion:The results of this study confirmed the initial hypothesis, and found that Health BeliefModel had strong explanatory and predictive ability on medication compliance behavioramong patients with hypertension. The health beliefs of patients with hypertension wereaffected by age, education, duration of disease. In future practices, the characteristics of thehypertensive patients must be combined to launch targeted health education activities anddevelop effective interventions, thus improving the medication compliance behavior amongpatients with hypertension.Innovation:This study used health belief model (HBM) to explore the influencial factors ofmedication adherence behavior among populations with hypertension for the first time inchina. The interaction of dimensions in the health belief model (HBM) and the model’soverall effect on behavior are intuitive through the using of structural equation model.