Evaluation of patient awareness to drug treatment and self-medication practices: Unexplored dimensions in chronic heart failure management.

INTRODUCTION

Treatment adherence is crucial in management of chronic heart failure (HF) to prevent complications (hospitalizations). Patient awareness toward drug treatment is essential to ensure adherence. In addition, there is tendency to self-medicate which can be hazardous in these patients. The present study was planned to evaluate drug treatment awareness, patient tendency to self-medicate and prescription patterns in chronic HF patients.

METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional, single-center, questionnaire-based study was conducted in the cardiology outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital from April 2021 to November 2022 after obtaining institutional ethics committee permission. Consented patients aged >18 years of either gender with confirmed diagnosis of chronic HF on stable drug treatment were included. Current prescription details were recorded, subsequently patients were administered a prevalidated drug treatment awareness (11-item, score-11) questionnaire and self-medication practice (12-item) questionnaire.

RESULTS

Two hundred and fifty-six HF patients were enrolled and the overall mean treatment awareness score was 5.06 ± 1.77 and content accuracy was poor for names of the prescribed drugs (58/256,23%), dose/frequency (20/256, 8%) and adverse effects (0). Fifty-one percent HF patients indulged in self-medication practices with most common self-medicating drugs being analgesics. The average number of drugs/encounter was 5.95 ± 1.12 and most common class was beta-blockers.

CONCLUSION

Drug treatment awareness lacked in names, dose, frequency, and adverse effects of the prescribed drugs. Nearly 50% patients indulged in self-medication practices, maximum with analgesics. The most common drug class prescribed was beta-blockers (Metoprolol) followed by angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (Ramipril).