Gender difference in medication adherence among hypertensive patients in Odisha

Around 1.13 billion population and among them one in four men and one in five women are affected with this worldwide. In India, 20.6% of males and 20.9% of females were having hypertension. Orissa showed that 32% of men and 42% of women are affected with hypertension. Methodology: This descriptive comparative study focused on the gender based difference on the medication adherence among the hypertensive patients. A Self-structured questionnaire was used to collect the socio demographic profile and the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale used to collect the adherence to the patients. The sample size of this study was 93 females and 118 males selected from simple random sampling technique Results: Among the participants majority of the participants from the both group were 40- 60 years of age. The most of the male participants had a medium level of medication adherence (83%) and females had a low medication adherence level (34%) when comparing between the two genders. There is no significant difference (0.479) between the male and female medication adherence score. The study results showed that the female participants education and exercise status with the medication adherence had a significant association. Conclusion: The present study revealed that there is no gender based difference on the adherence of medication among the patients with high blood pressure. When considering the regular medication practice the males are better than the females