High Blood Pressure Medication Adherence Among Urban, African Americans in the Midwest United States
Open accessAbstract
Hypertension is a chronic condition that disproportionately affects African Americans. Managing high blood pressure (HBP) requires adherence to daily medication. However, many patients with hypertension take their HBP medication inconsistently, putting them at heightened risk of heart disease. Researchers have shown that these health risks are greater for African Americans than for Caucasians. In this article, we examine barriers and facilitators of medication adherence among urban African Americans with hypertension. We interviewed 24 African Americans with hypertension (58.5% women, average age 59.5 years) and conducted a comprehensive thematic analysis. Twenty-two barriers and 32 facilitators to medication adherence emerged. Barriers included side effects and forgetting while facilitators included reminders, routines, and social support. Using this data, we developed a diagram of theme connectedness of factors that affect medication adherence. This diagram can guide multi-level HBP intervention research that targets African Americans to promote medication adherence, prevent heart disease, and reduce ethnic and racial health disparities.
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Forgetting to take medicine is one of the most common reasons for unintentional medication nonadherence.
“Forgetting to take medicines is one of the most common reasons for unintentional medication nonadherence.”
From Medication Adherence Reminder System for Virtual Home Assistants: Mixed Methods Evaluation Study (2021) · cites this paper as [10]
The Findings (Emergent Themes; page not available) rank general forgetting third among barriers to medication adherence, with 18 occurrences. The Findings (Theme Development, Validation, and Description; page not available) also report that nine participants described forgetting to take their medicine. The study concerns high-blood-pressure medication in a specific group; it does not establish how common forgetting is among reasons for unintentional medication nonadherence generally. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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- Authors
- Schober, D. J., Tate, M., Rodriguez, D., Ruppar, T. M., Williams, J., & Lynch, E.
- Affiliations
- DePaul University (US)
- Rush University (US)
- Rush University Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Schober, Daniel J.
- Venue
- Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
- Published
- 2020-07-10
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 607-617
- ISSN
- 2196-8837 (ISSN-L)
- 2197-3792
- PMC
- PMC7810351
- OpenAlex
- W3040907261
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 2.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- This research was supported by a Community-based Faculty Fellowship through the Irwin W. Steans Center at DePaul University
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Family Practice › Medication Adherence and Compliance
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Blood Pressure and Hypertension Studies
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Pharmacy and Medical Practices
- Keywords
- medication adherence, hypertension, African Americans, urban population, barriers and facilitators, adverse effects, medication reminders, social support, heart disease prevention, racial disparities in health, multilevel interventions
- MeSH terms
- Antihypertensive Agents, Black or African American, Female, Health Services Accessibility, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Socioeconomic Factors, Urban Population, Midwestern United States, Drug Monitoring, Health Status Disparities, Medication Adherence
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