Antihypertensive medication compliance in African-American stroke patients: Behavioral epidemiology and interventions

Hypertension is a major cause of stroke in the African-American community, and lack of control of hypertension appears to be common. Improving complia nce to antihypertensive therapy in African-American stroke patients could h ave a significant impact on recurrent stroke rates. Little is known about f actors affecting compliance in this community and which interventions would be effective in improving compliance. Health behavior models which assess the patient's perception of stroke and hypertension, barriers to the desire d behavior, perception of ability to perform the behavior, perception of ot hers' acceptance of the behavior and the patient's behavioral stage could b e used to tailor interventions to improve compliance. A plan to improve com pliance should take into account the target population's baseline rates of compliance, perception of need for intervention and risk factors for noncom pliance.