MEDICATION ADHERENCE SELF EFFICACY LEVEL OF THE HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS WHO APPLIED TO A FAMILY HEALTH CENTER

Objective: the aim of this study is to determine the levels of the medication adherence selfefficacy and the factors affecting hypertensive patients who applied to a family health center. material and method: this descriptive study was conducted with 127 hypertensive patients who applied to a family health center in kars city, between february-may 2012. the data collection tools are a questionnaire form which includes questions related to descriptive characteristics and the disease and medication adherence self efficacy scale. the data obtained from research were evaluated by computer using numerical percentages, student-t test, mann-whitney u, kruskal wallis test and correlation analysis. findings: the average score of medication adherence self efficacy scale was measured as 61.92 ± 12.69. while the mean of adherence self efficacy scale of the women and regular drug users was found higher. it was observed that there was no statistical difference between patient's marital status, age, educational status, income status, family type, diagnosis time of hypertension, group of drugs used, concomitant disease, the presence of diabetes and status of knowledge about complications of hypertension and on medication adherence self-efficacy. result: in this study, it was found out that the patient’s perception levels of medication adherence self-efficacy were high, and this perception was affected by sexuality and habit of drug use.