A Comparison of the Effects of Teach-Back and Motivational Interviewing on the Adherence to Medical Regimen in Patients with Hypertension

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Arterial hypertension is considered a chronic medical problem and also a challenging condition. The present study aimed to compare the effects of motivational interviewing and teach-back on people with hypertension. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this clinical trial conducted in Yasuj in 2018 a total of 81 patients with essential hypertension were selected in terms of the inclusion criteria. Then, they were randomly divided into three groups: teach-back (Group 1), motivational interviewing (Group 2), and control (Group 3). Three teach-back sessions were held for the teach-back group, five sessions of motivational interviewing for the motivational interviewing group, and the routine care was provided for the control group. In addition, data were collected by the demographic form and scale of Adherence to Systemic Hypertension Treatment, which were completed by participants of all three groups at baseline and also two months from the intervention. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21 by applying descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, chi-squared test, Fisher’s exact test, and Bonferroni test. FINDINGS: Two months from the interventions, in Group 1, the score of adherence to the hypertension treatment regimen significantly increased by 816.38 points compared to the control group, in Group 2 by 1228.9 points compared to the control group, and in Group 2 by 412.6 points compared to Group 1 (p >0.05). CONCLUSION: Both teach-back and motivational interviewing increased the adherence to the hypertension treatment regimen; however, motivational interviewing was more effective compared to teach-back in boosting adherence to the hypertension treatment regimen.