adherence to antihypertensives in patients with comorbid condition

Background: comorbidity has been noted as a potential barrier to proper adherence to antihypertensive medications. objectives: we decided to investigate whether comorbidity could significantly affect adherence of iranian patients with hypertension to their medication regimen. patients and methods: two hundred and eighty consecutive hypertensive patients were interviewed in 4 cities of iran. the 8-item morisky medication adherence scale (mmas-8) (validated in persian) was used to assess medication adherence. this scale determines adherence by scores as lower than 6 (low adherence), 6 or 7 (moderate adherence), and 8 (high adherence). comorbidity was considered as any concomitant medical condition, which necessitates the patient to take medicine for a minimum of 6 months prior to the interviews. results: the most common comorbid conditions were ischemic heart disease (65 patients, 23.2%), diabetes mellitus (55 patients, 19.6%), and dyslipidemia (51 patients, 18.2%). mean (± sd) mmas-8 score in comorbid group was 5.68 (± 1.85) and in non-comorbid hypertensive patients, it was 5.83 (± 1.91) (p = 0.631). mean (± sd) number of comorbidities was 1.53 (± 0.75) in low adherence group compared to 1.54 (± 0.77) in moderate/high adherers (p = 0.98). with increasing the number of comorbid diseases, the proportion of patients with high adherence decreased successively from 20% in those with no comorbid disease to 14.1% in those with one or two comorbid conditions, and finally 11.1% in those with 3 to 5 comorbid conditions. conclusions: with increasing the number of comorbid conditions, the proportion of patients with high adherence decreases. in our opinion, this finding is a useful clinical note for healthcare providers when managing patients with hypertension who have other medical problems at the same time.