Assessment of Adherence to Medication and Its Association with Health-Related Quality of Life Among Hypertensive Patients in the United Arab Emirates

Aseel Faeq Maqadmi,1 Karim Ghannem,2 Juny Sebastian1 1Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates; 2Center for Cardiac Sciences and Cardiology, Thumbay University Hospital, Ajman, United Arab EmiratesCorrespondence: Juny Sebastian, Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates, Email [email protected]: Many patients, especially those with chronic conditions (eg, hypertension, cardiovascular disease), struggle to adhere to long-term medication regimens, leading to serious complications and reduced quality of life.Methods: A cross-sectional study at Thumbay University Hospital was conducted among hypertensive patients (≥ 18 years, ≥ 6 months on antihypertensive therapy) to assess medication adherence and its association with health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Data were collected using a structured questionnaire; adherence and HRQoL were measured by the Hill-Bone and WHOQOL-BREF instruments; data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, binary logistic regression, and Spearman correlations.Results: Among 377 patients medication adherence was predominantly high in 55.7% of patients, medium in 40.6%, and low in 3.7%; 76.9% reported high HRQoL, with the highest domain score in Environment (81.25%) and lowest in Physical health (67.86%) (differences were significant). Spearman correlations showed small but significant associations between adherence and Physical (ρ = − 0.10, p = 0.05) and Environment (ρ = 0.12, p = 0.02); other domains were non-significant. Longer hypertension duration increased adherence (AOR 6.98 for 10–< 15 years, p < 0.001; 8.81 for ≥ 15 years, p = 0.01), whereas non-Muslim religion (AOR 0.49, p = 0.03) and no family history (AOR 0.57, p = 0.04) predicted lower adherence. In multivariate HRQoL analysis, age ≥ 60, home ownership, comorbidity, and ≥ 3 antihypertensives had AORs of 0.40, 0.34, 0.22, and 0.10 (p = 0.03, 0.01, 0.03, 0.00) for lower HRQoL; regular income and no alternative medicine had AORs of 2.67 and 2.60 (p = 0.03, 0.01) for higher HRQoL.Conclusion: Adherent in this UAE study was high (55.7%), and HRQoL was generally favorable; HRQoL was higher with regular income, home ownership, and no alternative medicine, but lower with comorbidities, age ≥ 60, and ≥ 3 antihypertensives. Adherence improved with longer disease duration and was influenced by religion and family history, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to improve adherence and HRQoL.Keywords: health-related quality of life, hill bone medication adherence scale, logistic regression, WHOQOL-BREF