Materials and Methods Top
The study was conducted at the Medical Outpatient Department of the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria. It is a federal government owned specialist hospital based in Owo with catchment from other parts of Ondo State and beyond.
A descriptive cross-sectional study design aimed at documenting factors affecting the drug adherence of hypertensive patients was conducted. Systematic random sampling method was used to select consenting hypertensive patients who had received care at the Medical Outpatient Department of the hospital for at least 3 months. Exclusion criteria included nonconsenting, comorbid, and pregnant patients.
The required sample size of 288 was calculated using a formula for estimating the minimum sample size in descriptive health studies [n = Z 2 pq/d 2 ] [14] and finding from a previous study [8] where 25% were reported. The minimum sample size was increased by 10% to take care of incomplete/nonresponse and refusals.
Data were collected with a pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire that had biodata, family characteristics, and perception of family support using the Perceived Social Support Family-Scale (PSS-Fa).
The PSS-Fa is a 20-item validated measure of family support. The subject answered "yes", "no", or "do not know" to questions on his/her feelings and experiences with his/her family. Each response that led to family support was given a score of 1 while a response indicating lack of family support was given a score of 0. Summated scores were used to arrive at a family support score for each subject, with a possible score range of 0-20 points. Higher scores indicated higher level of perceived family support with scores equal to or greater than 11 taken as strong family support, scores 7-10 taken as weak family support while scores equal or less than 6 taken as no family support. The PSS-Fa has been found to have good reliability and validity. The original Perceived Social Support Scale has an alpha coefficient of 0.90 indicating that the scale has excellent internal consistency. The alpha for the PSS-Fa ranged from 0.88 to 0.91. [15]
Clinical checklist data were obtained from the respondent's clinic records. This included comorbidity history, and blood pressure profile at the baseline and at 3 months.
Degree of adherence by individual patients was estimated manually by means of patient self-report. The degree of adherence from patient self-report [16] was estimated using the following formula: