Abstract

Patients with hypertension and diabetes co-morbidity may have medication knowledge and therapy challenges that could impact on patients’ outcomes. The study examines knowledge of medication and therapy among hypertension and Type-2- diabetes mellitus co-morbid patients at a Municipal hospital in Ghana. This study was conducted at the medical outpatient department (OPD) of the Municipal Hospital in Tema (a Harbour City), in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. This was a prospective study involving 389 patients, who had co-morbid hypertension and Type-2-diabetes mellitus visiting an OPD of the hospital, of which 338 patients consented to be part of the study. The patients were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire, on the name, purpose, number of medications taken, dose, duration of therapy, mode of administration, and side effects of the medication therapy. Bloom’s cut off was used to assess the overall patients’ knowledge, and chi-square analysis used to test the association between knowledge and other variables. From the study, 29% of the study subjects (n=98) had five medicines prescribed (the highest) and three patients (0.9%) were prescribed nine medicines (the least). Patients had knowledge of the names of medication (n=158, 46.8%), duration of therapy (n=322, 95.3%), route of administration (n=324, 95.9%), purpose of anti-hypertensive (n=254, 75.1%), anti-diabetic therapy (n=251, 74.9%) and common side effects (n=50, 14.8%). Overall, more than half had inadequate knowledge of their medication and therapy (n=187, 55.3%). The hypertensive and diabetic patients did not have adequate knowledge about their medications and therapy. This provides justification for the integration of effective pharmaceutical care interventions to improve patients’ outcomes.

Keywords: Hypertension, Knowledge, Medication, Therapy, Type-2-diabetes mellitus