Abstract

Background: Hypertension is considered the most important public health disease around the world due to its high prevalence after 65 years, and it is a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases like myocardial infarction, renal insufficiency, and stroke. It can also cause death if not diagnosed and treated early. 
The study aimed to assess the main causes of non-compliance with hypertensive treatment among hypertensive patients.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the consultant clinic of AL-Sader Teaching Hospital in Basrah from April 1st, 2021, to September 15th, 2021, on 381 patients previously diagnosed with hypertension by specialists. The data was collected using a questionnaire and face-to-face interviews.
Results: This study showed that (44.4%) of the participants aged 60 years and above, (60.4%) were females, the highest percentage were housewives (44.4%) followed by retired (24.4%), the majority of participants were married with a level of education less than secondary education, and (51.2%) had intermediate economic status. Regarding the clinical characteristics of the study participants, 61.4 percent of them were diagnosed with hypertension, most of them were asymptomatic, and more than half of them had no other comorbidities. Most of them showed good compliance to the traditional treatment; regarding compliance to antihypertensive treatment, the highest percentage of them did not adhere either to the time prescribed by the doctor or to the dose or frequency; more than half of them stopped their treatment when they felt better, and nearly half of them stopped treatment while feeling bad due to drug side effects. The majority of them were not affected by the cost of drugs. Most of them had poor compliance regarding medical check-ups.
Conclusions: The current study concludes that the compliance rate in general was low among our study participants. The Factors that decreased the rate of noncompliance were old age, a higher educational level, being retired, and the long duration of the disease.