Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 May;75(2):185-91.
doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2008.09.018. Epub 2008 Nov 14.

Provider communication effects medication adherence in hypertensive African Americans

Antoinette Schoenthaler  1 , William F Chaplin, John P Allegrante, Senaida Fernandez, Marleny Diaz-Gloster, Jonathan N Tobin, Gbenga Ogedegbe
Affiliations

Provider communication effects medication adherence in hypertensive African Americans

Antoinette Schoenthaler et al. Patient Educ Couns. 2009 May.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of patients' perceptions of providers' communication on medication adherence in hypertensive African Americans.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of 439 patients with poorly controlled hypertension followed in community-based healthcare practices in the New York metropolitan area. Patients' rating of their providers' communication was assessed with a perceived communication style questionnaire,while medication adherence was assessed with the Morisky self-report measure.

Results: Majority of participants were female, low-income, and had high school level educations, with mean age of 58 years. Fifty-five percent reported being nonadherent with their medications; and 51% rated their provider's communication to be non-collaborative. In multivariate analysis adjusted for patient demographics and covariates (depressive symptoms, provider degree), communication rated as collaborative was associated with better medication adherence (beta=-.11, p=.03). Other significant correlates of medication adherence independent of perceived communication were age (beta=.13, p=.02) and depressive symptoms (beta=-.18, p=.001).

Conclusion: Provider communication rated as more collaborative was associated with better adherence to antihypertensive medications in a sample of low-income hypertensive African-American patients.

Practice implications: The quality of patient-provider communication is a potentially modifiable element of the medical relationship that may affect health outcomes in this high-risk patient population.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest All authors declare that there are no competing or financial relationships that may lead to a conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Patient flow through the study
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Mensah GA, Mokdad AH, Ford ES, Greenlund KJ, Croft JB. State of disparities in cardiovascular health in the United States. Circulation. 2005;111:1233–41. - PubMed
    1. Bosworth HB, Dudley T, Olsen MK, Voils CI, Powers B, Goldstein MK, Oddone EZ. Racial differences in blood pressure control: potential explanatory factors. Am J Med. 2006;119:70 e9–15. - PubMed
    1. Institute of Medicine. Unequal Treatment: Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. National Academies Press; Washington, DC: 2003. - PubMed
    1. Beach MC, Sugarman J, Johnson RL, Arbelaez JJ, Duggan PS, Cooper LA. Do patients treated with dignity report higher satisfaction, adherence, and receipt of preventive care? Ann Fam Med. 2005;3:331–8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cooper-Patrick LA, Gallo JJ, Gonzales JJ, Vu HT, Powe NR, Nelson C, Ford DE. Race, gender, and partnership in the patient-physician relationship. J Amer Med Assoc. 1999;282:583–9. - PubMed

Publication types

Substances