IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i2p196-d196982.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adherence to Treatment in Stroke Patients

Author

Listed:
  • Emmanouela Cheiloudaki

    (School of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, 26335 Patra, Greece)

  • Evangelos C. Alexopoulos

    (School of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, 26335 Patra, Greece
    Occupational Health Department, Metropolitan General Hospital, 15562 Athens, Greece)

Abstract

Background : Compliance with medication in patients who have suffered stroke is usually not-optimal. This study aims to measure the level of compliance with the treatment and to identify socio-demographic, clinical, and subjective factors related to the long-term compliance of stroke patients with their treatment. Methods : 140 patients (66.4% males) suffered an ischemic stroke at least six months old, participated in the survey. Compliance was measured using the Medication Adherence Report Scale and the quality of life by the Stroke Specific Quality of Life questionnaire. Furthermore, the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire on perceptions about the disease were assessed. The doctor–patient relationship was assessed by the Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation questionnaire and the family support was assessed by the FSS scale. Univariate and multivariate analysis was employed to identify the significant factors affecting compliance in these stroke patients. Results : In 68.6% of patients the compliance was classified as optimal, in 25.7% as partial and as poor in 5.7%; the last two categories were treated as sub-optimal compliance in multivariate analysis. The high compliance was related to patient’s mental state (OR:3.94 95% CI: 1.84–4.46), the perception medication necessity (OR:1.26 95% CI: 1.01–1.56), and the doctor–patient communication (OR:1.76 95% CI: 1.15–2.70). Men showed a lower compliance than women, as well as increased concerns about taking medication (OR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.69–0.99). Paradoxically, the work /productivity related quality of life was inversely associated with compliance (OR (95% CI): 0.44 (0.23 to 0.82)). Conclusions : The perception of medication necessity and the doctor–patient communication are manageable factors associated with compliance in treating patients who have suffered stroke. In addition, rehabilitation and return to work programs should consider these factors when providing support to those persons.

Suggested Citation

  • Emmanouela Cheiloudaki & Evangelos C. Alexopoulos, 2019. "Adherence to Treatment in Stroke Patients," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-11, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:2:p:196-:d:196982
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/2/196/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/2/196/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohd Azzuan Ahmad & Devinder Kaur Ajit Singh & Nor Azlin Mohd Nordin & Khor Hooi Nee & Norliza Ibrahim, 2019. "Virtual Reality Games as an Adjunct in Improving Upper Limb Function and General Health among Stroke Survivors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-9, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:2:p:196-:d:196982. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.