Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Knowledge of Hypertensive Patients With or Without HIV on Hypertension and Their Experience in Using Their Medicines in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: The Role of the Pharmacist

Godeliver AB Kagashe¹ , Sameera A Fazal²

¹Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, School of Pharmacy, PO Box 65577, Dar es Salaam; ²Ebrahim Haji Charitable Health Centre, Dar es Salaam,Tanzania.

For correspondence:- Godeliver Kagashe Email: gkagashe@muhas.ac.tz Tel:+255713310511

Received: 21 April 2011 Accepted: 23 November, 2011 Published: 25 December 2011

Citation: Kagashe GA, Fazal SA. Knowledge of Hypertensive Patients With or Without HIV on Hypertension and Their Experience in Using Their Medicines in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: The Role of the Pharmacist. Trop J Pharm Res 2011; 10(6):825-831 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v10i6.17

© 2011 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: The study assessed the knowledge of both HIV and non-HIV hypertensive patients on hypertension and the role of pharmacists in their pharmaceutical care.

Methods: The study was conducted at the hypertension and HIV clinics in government hospitals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Patients were interviewed using a structured questionnaire and pharmacists were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire and by observation.

Results: Few patients in both groups knew the names of antihypertensive medicines they were taking. Information on the use of antihypertensive and antiretroviral (ARV) medicines was mostly provided by doctors. Adverse drug reactions were significantly more when patient used both ARVs and antihypertensive medicines than when they used only antihypentsives. Only 20 % of hypertensive-HIV patients informed the pharmacist dispensing antihypertensive medicines that they were using ARVs, and only 19 % of the pharmacists knew the drug interactions between ARVs and antihypertensive medicines. During dispensing, about 2 % of the patients were asked about other medicines being used.

Conclusion: There is a need to improve patients’ knowledge of hypertension. The pharmacists should also have up-to-date knowledge of hypertension-HIV co-morbidity. Proper coordination between HIV and hypertension clinics and the full integration of a pharmacist in the health care team can help to improve patient care.

Keywords: Hypertension, HIV/AIDS, Antiretroviral medicines, Antihypertensive medicines, Adverse drug reaction, Dispensing, Knowledge