Pharmacist Intervention Model by Collaborating with Health Professionals and Family Empowerment to Increase Medication Adherence among Rural Elderly Hypertensive Patients

Abstract

Medication adherence among elderly hypertensive patients, particularly in a rural area, is one of the public health problems for which health professionals need to find measures to resolve. This study aimed to develop a pharmacist intervention model by collaborating with health professionals and family empowerment to increase medication adherence among elderly hypertensive patients in the rural area. This research was a mixed-method consisted of 2 stages: stage 1, a descriptive survey study; and stage 2, the development of intervention model with grounded theory by focus group discussion (FGD) and literature studies. Participants were 15 health professionals recruited with purposive sampling and 220 elderly hypertensive patients, along with their families, recruited with quota sampling. Participants were mostly women, had a middle level of knowledge about hypertension, the middle level of perception about the role of the pharmacist, and middle level of perception in terms of the pharmacists' ability in family empowerment. Fifty-seven participants participated in focus group discussion, and the result indicated the need to socialise the role of pharmacists, to allow pharmacists to have the opportunity to attend training, and the need for collaboration to empower families. This led to the recommendations for the pharmacist's role, in which two stages were proposed, pre-intervention and intervention. Based on the data from a model trial with elderly hypertensive patients, it was found that there was a significant increase in the adherence to taking medication in elderly hypertensive patients after the intervention. This model was expected to be an alternative in providing services to elderly hypertensive patients to improve patient adherence.