@article {216110, title = {Reasons behind high rate of non-compliance to scheduled office visits in hypertensive patients: results from the Egyptian registry of specialized hypertension clinics.}, journal = {The Egyptian heart journal : (EHJ) : official bulletin of the Egyptian Society of Cardiology}, volume = {74}, year = {2022}, pages = {45}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Hypertensive patients{\textquoteright} compliance to the clinic{\textquoteright}s follow-up visits is associated with a better blood pressure control. The aim of this study was to detect the reasons of non-compliance to office visits in Egyptian hypertensive patients.

RESULTS: This is an observational, prospective, cross-sectional research study where patients were enrolled from the registry of the specialized hypertension clinics of 9 university hospitals. Those who attended less than 3 office visits, throughout the registry period, were considered non-compliant and were contacted through the phone. A simple questionnaire was prepared, which included questions about the reasons of non-compliance to follow up. There were 3014 patients eligible for inclusion in this study but only 649 patients (21.5\%) completed the questionnaire. Patients claimed that the reasons of non-compliance to the follow up visits in the specialized hypertension clinics were as follows: 444 patients (68.4\%) preferred to follow up elsewhere mostly in pharmacies, 53 patients (8.2\%) claimed that the healthcare service was unsatisfactory, 94 patients (14.5\%) were asymptomatic, and 110 patients (16.9\%) said that the clinic was far from their homes. Despite non-compliance to office visits, 366 patients (59.2\%) were compliant to their antihypertensive medications and 312 (48.1\%) patients were compliant to salt restriction. About 34\% of patients used herbs, mainly hibiscus, as adjuvant to their antihypertensive medications.

CONCLUSIONS: Reasons for non-compliance to office visits in hypertensive patients were either patient-related, or healthcare-related. To improve patients{\textquoteright} compliance, physicians need to educate their patients about hypertension, patients need to follow their doctors{\textquoteright} instructions as regard medications, salt restriction and scheduled office visits, and governments need to provide better and cheaper healthcare services.

}, author = {Ghada Youssef and Marwa Mohamed and Hamid, Magdy Abdel and El Remisy, Dalia} }