The influence of the hypertensive patient's education in compliance with their medication

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between patient' s education in compliance with their medical regimen and the external varia bles: (1) "years of schooling," (2) duration of treatment, and (3) complian ce with the medical regimen. The hypothesis tested in this study was as fol lows: "Hypertensive individuals who are educated about the importance of th eir medication and about the consequences of not taking the prescribed dosa ge will show better compliance with their prescribed drug regimen than thos e who are not thus educated." The sample of the study consisted of 40 hyper tensive patients. A "posttest-only" control group design was used in this s tudy. The hypothesis of the study was tested by using the Mann-Whitney U te st. For the relationship between the external variables (years of schooling , duration of treatment, and compliance with the medical regimen), the Spea rman test was used. The findings of the study revealed a statistically sign ificant difference between compliance levels in the experimental group and in the control group (U = 130. p < 0.05), a positive correlation between "y ears of schooling" and compliance (r(s) = 0.33, p = 0.04), and a negative c orrelation between duration of treatment and compliance (r(s) = -0.45,p = 0 .005). The findings support the hypothesis of the study.