Effects Of Social Support On Medication Compliance In Elderly Patients With Hypertension In The Rural Areas In Midwest Of China

[Objective]Though investigating the current situation of medication compliance ofelderly hypertensive patients in the central and western rural areas in China as well as theirspecific social support in medication compliance, the influence of social support on thepatients’ medication compliance needs to be analyzed to provide the reference proposal forimproving the social support network framework of medication compliance behaviormanagement and advancing patients’ compliance.[Methods] In this study, we selected Qianjiang District of Chongqing as the typicalsurvey sample area, stratified random sampling was used to investigate600registeredelderly hypertensive patients over the age of60in the management file of chronic diseases.Meanwhile face-to-face questionnaire survey was used to learn about their basicdemographic status, use of antihypertensive drugs situation. After evaluating the patients’need for antihypertensive medication, we selected random samples of347patients whoneeded to take the hypertensive medication to obtain their social support further, and thenanalyzed how social support impact patients’ medication adherence with multi-logisticregression method.[Results] The proportion of rural elderly hypertensive patients in Qianjiang District ofChongqing taking hypertensive drugs within two weeks was63.2%,and that of patientswho needed take drugs and actually took them was67.3%.The medication compliance ratewas29.5%.Financial support sources for patients’ purchase of antihypertensive drugs wereprimarily their family and social assistance; information support mainly came from thedoctors (including clinic doctors and hypertensive follow-up doctors); emotional supportalso mainly came from doctors and family members; less patients received direct actionsupport for taking their hypertensive medicine, of which mainly from family members;essential drug policy has provided patients with good financial support, while outpatientreimbursement policies for patients with chronic disease needed to be improved; There wasbarely support from neighbors and community members.“Whether patients receive information support or not”,“the degree of informationsupport the patients receive from their clinic doctors,"whether patients ask doctors for active support or not when they are uncomfortable" and "economic conditions of patients"these four variables are included into the final logistic regressive equation. They arestatistically significant. The OR of “whether patients receive information support or not "is5.488, indicating that in the case of three other variables hold constant, the medicationcompliance rate of those patients who receive the information support is5.488times ashigh as that of who don’t. The OR was followed by whether patients ask doctors for activesupport or not when they are uncomfortable",which has the OR,2.884,indicating themedication compliance rate of those patients who ask for active support was1.884timeshigher than those who don’t. Also we can see OR of " the degree of information support thepatients receive from their clinic doctors" was1.232,meaning that in the case of the otherthree variables constant, medication compliance rate of the patients who accept theinformation support was0.232times higher compared with those who not; financialcondition’ OR was1.265, indicating that the higher lever patients’ own financial situation,the better patient’s medication compliance.[Conclusions]The resources for improving elderly hypertensive patients’ medicationcompliance in Qianjiang District is little. Some resources have not been made the full useof. Social support can have an effect on patients’ medication compliance, among whichinformation support is the most important. Meanwhile, the initiative of the patients’utilization from doctors’ support when then are uncomfortable and the better financialcondition can also improve patients’ medication compliance.[Suggestions] In order to improve the medication compliance of elderly hypertensivepatients in the central and western rural areas, we need to make the full use of everyavailable social resource and structure a better social support network. We also need tostrengthen the health education, guideline and information support for the patients toenhance their own awareness of the disease and improve their initiatives to use the support...