Adherence to antihypertensive therapy: integrative review

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe the factors associated with adherence to drug treatment of systemic arterial hypertension in a brazilian adult population. METHOD: Integrative literature review of full papers available from online databases: Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), Nursing Database (BDENF). Inclusion criteria were original articles, research conducted with the Brazilian adult population, publications in Portuguese, English, or Spanish from 2009 to 2019, resulting in 24 articles. RESULTS: There was a predominance of descriptive research with quantitative approach, published in 2012 and 2014. From the analyzed articles emerged the following thematic categories: difficulty of adherence related to the characteristics of the person; difficulty in adherence related to the disease and therapy; adherence difficulty related to the service and health team. Among the intervening factors most mentioned were forgetfulness, unavailability of the drug and complex therapeutic scheme. CONCLUSION: The data showed that the factors that interfere with adherence related to the use of antihypertensive drugs are too broad and multifactorial, requiring a multidisciplinary and individualized approach.