Development and validation of an instrument to determine the factors that influence therapeutic adherence in hypertensive patients.

Abstract

Introduction: Arterial hypertension is the most frequent chronic disease, the importance of controlling this disease lies in the fact that it does not present symptoms and is generally diagnosed when complications appear that have a negative impact on the hope and quality of life of those who suffer from it. Being therapeutic adherence a key element in the control of the disease and, also, one of the main factors to thus prevent cardiovascular risk and premature death. Objective: To develop and validate an instrument to determine the factors that influence therapeutic adherence in hypertensive patients. Materials and methods: A quantitative-qualitative, cross-sectional, exploratory, descriptive cohort study with a non-experimental design was carried out. Using a survey and a saturation or in-depth interview. The validation of the instrument was carried out through expert judgment and a pilot plan of 20 individuals for the quantitative one and two hypertensive people for the qualitative one, chosen for convenience. Results: According to expert judgment, the quantitative instrument with 19 items has 97.2% reliability and 96.6% reliability in the qualitative instrument made up of three categories. Cronbach's alpha is 0.811, which indicates a good level of reliability and correlation between the items in the questionnaire. Conclusions: A valid and reliable instrument is made available to health professionals, with 7 dimensions and 19 items, being promising to determine the factors that influence therapeutic adherence and measure the degree of therapeutic adherence in patients with arterial hypertension.