Developing an adherence in hypertension questionnaire short version: MUAH-16.

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology
• Clinical Medicine
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Patient adherence to antihypertensive drugs is crucial for managing hypertension.
• The Maastricht Utrecht Adherence in Hypertension (MUAH) questionnaire identifies reasons for poor adherence.
• A need exists for a more concise and validated adherence assessment tool.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a short version of the MUAH questionnaire.
• To compare the psychometric properties of the original MUAH with a reduced item version.
• To evaluate different structural models for the short MUAH questionnaire.

Main Methods:

• Exploratory factor analysis was used to reduce the number of items from the original MUAH.
• Confirmatory factor analysis compared the fit of the original MUAH (model 1) with the 16-item short version (model 2).
• Two models of the short version (MUAH-16) were compared: one with correlated factors (2a) and one with a global adherence factor (2b).

Main Results:

• The original MUAH (model 1) showed a poor fit to the data.
• The 16-item MUAH short version (model 2) demonstrated a very good fit to the data.
• No significant difference was found between the two structural models of the MUAH-16.

Conclusions:

• The 16-item MUAH short version (MUAH-16) is a valid and reliable tool for assessing adherence to antihypertensive medication.
• MUAH-16 offers a more efficient and effective assessment compared to the original MUAH questionnaire.
• This validated short form can aid clinicians in understanding and improving patient adherence.