Effect of health management follow-up service on medication compliance among hypertension outpatients

  Objective  To examine the effect of health management follow-up service on medication compliance among hypertension outpatients and to provide evidences for standardizing health management and improving medication compliance in hypertension patients.

  Methods  Using stratified random sampling, we recruited 3 108 adult attendees (≥ 35 years) at 16 community healthcare centers in 4 districts of Tianjin city during May 2015 and conducted a questionnaire survey among 612 primary hypertension patients identified from the attendees recruited. Propensity score matching (PSM) method was used to analyze the effect of health management follow-up service on medication compliance in the hypertension patients.

  Results  Of all the patients surveyed, 462 (75.5%) reported taking antihypertensive medicine prescribed by doctors regularly. Of the 152 patients matched by PSM, 71.1% reported prescription-based regular antihypertensive medication. The patients receiving health management follow-up service reported a significantly higher ratio of regularly taking antihypertensive medicine compared to those not having health management follow-up service (81.6% vs. 60.5%, χ² = 8.189, P = 0.007).

  Conclusion  Health management follow-up service can improve the compliance antihypertensive medication in hypertension outpatients.