NON COMPLIANCE AND PATIENT PERCEIVED PROBLEMS IN CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE PATIENTS: A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

Introduction: Noncompliance is one of the major problems in medical treatment; there is plenty of reason resulting noncompliance, which includes patient attitude, cost, and forgetfulness, discontinuation of medications, unsatisfied with health care professionals, age, gender and lack of knowledge. Objective: Our objectives of the study was to investigate the factors affecting noncompliance and patient perceived problems mainly from the view point of cardiovascular disease, diagnosed in RMMCH Annamalai Nagar Chidambaram. Method : The study was conducted over the period of November 2015 to January 2016; questionnaires were developed for retrieving data from the patients. Results:A total of 40 patients were interviewed, it was turned out that almost all medically treated cardiovascular patients are compliance [31.5%] and [68.5%] are non compliance to the treatment. Forgetfulness and lack of knowledge seems to be the main factor s resulting non compliance. Over half of the patients were feeling difficult to adapt the life style and dietary changes. One by third the patients are not affordable with cost of the medication and most of them were unaware about side effect [95%], patients showing a careless attitude toward their medication intake. Patient belief about their reason of condition include fate [32.5%], age [15%], alcoholic/smoking [12.5%], discontinuation of treatment [27.5%], genetic factor [5%]. Conclusion: The risk of non compliance is usual in medical treatment. Understanding the phenomenon and patient education is essential for achieving better outcome. Key words: Compliance, Non compliance, Medication adherence, Patient perceived problem.