The effect of illness perception modification program on medication adherence and blood pressure level among hypertensive patients without complications

Abstract

The purpose of this quasi-experimental research was to study the effect of illness perception modifif ication program on medication adherence and blood pressure level among hypertensive patients without complications. Patients aged 30-59 years were purposively enrolled from the outpatient department of cardiology clinic at Ramathibodi hospital. The participants were assigned to the experimental and control groups (22 for each group). The control group received a usual care while the experimental group received the illness perception modifif ication program. The program was conducted for 8 weeks. Data were collected using demographic information sheet, medication adherence rating scale, the brief illness perception scale, and the beliefs about medicine questionnaires. The content validity index of
these questionnaires were 1.00, 1.00 and 0.94 respectively. Their Cronbach’s alpha coeffif icients were 0.77, 0.77, and 0.83, respectively. Descriptive statistics and t-test were used to analyze data. The results revealed that: 1) The mean score of medication adherence of hypertensive patients without complication after receiving the illness perception modification program was significantly higher than that before receiving the program at the signifif icant level of .05. 2) After receiving the illness perception modification program, the mean of difference scores of medication adherence in experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group at the significant level of .05. 3) The mean score of systolic and diastolic blood pressure in hypertensive patients without complication after receiving the illness perception modification program, were significantly lower than those before receiving the program at the significant level of .05. 4) After receiving the illness perception modification program, the mean of different scores of systolic and diastolic blood pressure in experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group at the significant level of .05.