Needa A Zalloum1,
Rana Abu Farha1,
Ala' M Abu Ruqa'a2,
Ayman A Khdair3,
Iman A Basheti4 
For correspondence:- Iman Basheti Email: dr_iman@asu.edu.jo Tel:+962799048003
Received: 15 July 2014 Accepted: 26 February 2015 Published: 31 March 2015
Citation: Zalloum NA, Abu Farha R, Abu Ruqa'a AM, Khdair AA, Basheti IA. Blood pressure home monitoring in hypertensive patients attending a tertiary health facility in Amman, Jordan: Effect on disease control and adherence rate. Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(3):533-538 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i3.24
© 2015 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..
Purpose: To investigate the effect of home monitoring of blood pressure (HMBP) on adherence to antihypertensive medications and control of the disease among patients attending a tertiary health facility in Amman, Jordan.
Methods: This cross-sectional correlation study was conducted in 2012 at the cardiovascular clinics of Jordan University Hospital. A questionnaire investigating participants' disease level of control, disease duration, frequency of HMBP use, type of measuring devices used, and effect of HMBP on adherence to antihypertensive medications and life style changes was used for the study. To minimize any bias that may have resulted from the involvement of pharmacists in data collection, we designed a clear stringent protocol that was strictly followed by the researcher with all patients. In addition to that, the researcher clearly introduced herself as an independent figure that cannot make any decisions or changes.
Results: Two hundred and five hypertensive patients who practice HMBP were recruited into this study. Sixty percent of the patients were aged 50 - 69 years. About 45 % of the patients were diagnosed with hypertension for > 10 years. Almost half of the patients have been using digital devices for blood pressure monitoring. The mean rate of HMBP was 15 times per month but almost 80 % of the patients did not document their blood pressure readings. Around 55 % of the patients referred high readings to a healthcare professional. Patients with higher levels of education as well as patients with lower BP readings showed significantly higher rates of adherence to their antihypertensive medications. Patients with high BP readings reported that they exercise more and reduced their daily salt intake.
Conclusion: Overall, the patients showed high adherence rates to antihypertensive medications and adoption of better life style. However, increasing patient’s awareness in respect to documenting and communicating BP readings to their physicians is needed.
Archives
News Updates
Fulltext in PDF