Relationship Between Medication Adherence and Ankle-Brachial Index Value in Patients With Hypertention

Background: hypertension is one of the leading causes of death and physical disabilities.the ankle-brachial index (abi) is one of the useful indicators of blood pressure with theability to show the risk of peripheral artery disease. this study aims to investigate therelationship between medication adherence and the abi lavue in patients with hypertension.methods: in this descriptive cross-sectional study, 250 patients with hypertension referredto medical health centers in karaj, iran were enrolled using a convenience sampling method.to collect data, a demographic form and the 8-item morisky medication adherence scale(mmas-8) were used. also, the abi was measured manually using an acoustic dopplerprobe. data were analyzed in spss software, v. 25.findings: the mean±sd of the right and left abi were 1.055±0.134 and 1.036±0.113,respectively. the mean±sd of mmas-8 score was 5.88±1.74. it was found that 127patients (50.8%) had low adherence level, 68 (27.2%) had moderate adherence level,and only 55 (22%) had high adherence level. there was a positive significant correlationbetween patients’ medication adherence and the abi value. moreover, a statisticallysignificant difference was observed in the mean scores of the abi in patients with threedifferent levels of medication adherence.conclusion: the medication adherence is poor among hypertensive patients in karaj. itis related to the abi such that with the decrease of medication adherence, the abi valuedecreases. therefore, adherence to medication regimen in patients with hypertension canbe effective in preventing arterial complications.