Factors Affecting Patients' Compliance with Antihypertensive Medication in a Rural Area

고혈압환자의 치료순응도에 영향을 미치는 요인

Noncompliance with treatment is a serious problem in the management of hypertension. We explored self-reported medication taking compliance behavior of 194 high blood pressure patients using modified health belief model hypothesizing interaction between model components. Data were collected from patients resistered hwachon community hypertension control program during February, 1993. Bivariate analysis showed perceived severity of complication, present symptom experience(p<0.05), perceived severity of hypertension and education leve(p<0.01) were significantly related to treatment experience. Logit analysis revealed that perceived severity of hypertension, perceived benefits of treatment, perceived barriers to treatment and interaction term between perceived severity of hypertension and perceived benefits of treatment contributed treatment experience. Health education from mass media was siglificantly related to continuity of treatment. We also concluded that the inclusion of interaction effects between health belief model components and the use of patient group as analysis unit lead to better study results.