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Compliance With Guidelines of Hypertension Management, and Associated Factors Among the Health Practitioners
Bizuayehu Atinafu Ataro1, Gebremeskel Mulatu2, Daniel Mengistu3
1Wolaita Sodo University, Sodo, Ethiopia.
Insights
Hypertension management in Ethiopia shows poor guideline compliance, with over two-thirds of patients not receiving recommended care. This gap exposes patients to serious complications, necessitating urgent interventions to improve hypertension control.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Cardiology
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Uncontrolled hypertension leads to severe health consequences like stroke and premature death, particularly in developing nations.
- A significant gap exists between recommended hypertension management guidelines and actual patient care.
- Patient quality of life is compromised, with risks of disability and mortality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess compliance with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health's hypertension management guideline.
- To identify gaps in the implementation of hypertension care protocols.
- To evaluate the adherence to both pharmacological and lifestyle modification recommendations.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective cross-sectional study utilizing patient medical records.
- Systematic sampling of adult hypertension patients from March 2019 to March 2020.
- Data analysis using Epi-data 7 and SPSS version 25 after rigorous data checking.
Main Results:
- Overall compliance with the national hypertension guideline was poor, with only 19.5% of patients managed according to recommendations.
- While pharmacological treatment adherence was higher (62.0%), a significant portion (38.0%) did not follow protocols.
- Less than a quarter of patients (19.5%) received comprehensive care including lifestyle modifications; 80.5% did not.
Conclusions:
- There is a critical failure in adhering to national hypertension management guidelines in the studied institutions.
- Health practitioners frequently neglect recommending essential lifestyle modifications for hypertension patients.
- The majority of hypertensive patients are at increased risk of complications due to inadequate management, demanding urgent corrective actions.
Abstract:
The consequences of uncontrolled hypertension such as stroke, myocardial infarction, retinal damage and others are significantly affecting individual and the community in large. The patients are suffering from compromised quality of life, permanent disability, and premature death in developing countries. The reason for the existence of the gap hasn't been clear yet. An institutional-based retrospective cross-sectional study designed from patient medical record data was used to assess compliance with the federal democratic and republic of Ethiopia ministry of health hypertension management guideline. Medical records of adult Patients treated for hypertension from March 2019 to March 2020 were reviewed. Systematic sampling technique from patients' medical records every 10th interval was taken to reach the total sample size. The collected data were checked for completeness, consistency, and accuracy before analysis. Data were coded, entered, and cleaned using Epi-data 7 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Overall compliance with the hypertension guideline was found to be poor; only 75 (19.5%) patients managed according to the guideline in these institutions. The majority of health practitioners complied with the pharmacological Antihypertensive treatment protocols for 238 (62.0%) patients, while for 146 (38.0%) of the patients the guideline was not followed. Combining the lifestyle modification recommendations and pharmacological antihypertensive treatment to assess compliance with the hypertension management guideline, only 75 (19.5%) patients managed as per the guideline, while 309 (80.5%) did not. Nearly more than two-thirds of the patients were not managed following the national hypertension guideline, and health practitioners are failed to recommend lifestyle modifications for most of the patients, as a result, the majority of the hypertensive patients are being exposed to complications and urgent intervention is demanded against the gap.
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