Patient Medication Adherence and Physician Prescribing among Congestive Heart Failure Patients of Yemen

Congestive heart failure has been associated with high morbidity and mortality requiring hospitalisation and is further complicated by noncompliance and under prescriptions. We aim to determine medication adherence and percentage deviation among Asians population in general and Yemenis in particular. A cross-sectional, prospective observational study with purposive sampling was conducted at two cardiac outpatient centers in 70 congestive heart failure patients for a period of 3 months. An Arabic translated Morisky 4 item scale assessed the adherence of patients. Deviation in prescribing was determined by chart review. All 70 patients had mean age of 56.6±16 years. Morisky 4 item scale predicted low adherence (n=33; 47.1%) and overall nonadherencerate (n=38; 54.2%) was slightly higher than adherence. Percentage nonadherence versus adherence was high with diuretics (53 vs. 46%) and, digoxin (40 vs. 29%). The adherence percentage of angiotensin receptor blockers (9%) and beta blockers (8%) was low. Diuretics were the most prescribed drugs (n=69; 99%), followed by angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (n=51; 73%), cardiac glycoside (n=48; 69%), few patients were on angiotensin receptor blockers (n=8; 11%) and (n=9; 13%) beta blockers. The maximum prescribing rate deviation was seen with angiotensin receptor blockers (−89%) and beta blockers (−87%) followed by nitrates (−77%). Digoxin (−31%) and angiotensin converting enzymes (−27%) deviated comparatively less. Prescribing as well as utilisation rates generally were low resulting in nonachievement of therapeutic goals which could be resolved using multimodel approach.