The association between drug therapy problems and blood pressure control of patients with hypertension in public health center setting.

BACKGROUND

Patients with hypertension are at risk of experiencing Drug Therapy Problems (DTPs). However, few have studied the pattern of DTPs in Indonesian public health center (PHC) and how it affected the blood pressure control.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to identify DTPs and its association to blood pressure control among patients with hypertension in Indonesian PHCs.

METHODS

A descriptive, observational and cross-sectional study involving 150 selected persistent hypertensive patients was conducted from August to December 2019 in 63 PHCs in Surabaya. A questionnaire asking patients' experiences during treatment of hypertension was used. Chi-square test was used to analyze the association between DTPs and blood pressure control.

RESULTS

The majority of respondents were aged 50-65 (54.7%), female (76%), only half has controlled blood pressure (52.7%) and most of them used three to four medicines at the same time (57.3%). A total 563 DTPs was identified with 15.6% was unnecessary drug use, 11.4% indicated need for additional drug therapy, one-fifth experienced dosage too low (21.5%) and nonadherence (19.2%) and 26% suffered from adverse drug reactions. There was a significant association between number of DTPs and blood pressure control (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION

Most patients experienced more than two DTPs and undertook more than three medicines at the same time. There is a significant association between the number of DTPs in hypertensive patient and the blood pressure control.