January 2022 Tip of the Month
Strategies to Improve Medication Adherence in Hypertensive Patients
This month we focus on medication adherence strategies to be used in the management of patients with hypertension. Medication adherence should be evaluated at each visit and prior to any escalation of antihypertensive treatment.
Medication Adherence Strategies
- Use once-daily dosing or single pill combinations (see Table 8)
- Empowerment-based counseling for self-management
- Providing adherence advice to patients, such as linking adherence to daily habits
- Home BP monitoring (i.e. remote patient monitoring)
- Reminder packaging of medications
- Electronic adherence aids such as mobile phones or short messages services
- Recognize and address comorbid behavioral health disorders
- Multidisciplinary healthcare team approach (i.e. pharmacists) to improve monitoring for adherence