Adherence to treatment recommendations and quality of life among patients with cardiovascular disease

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases are a common and serious health problem. Patients are often unaware of the severity of their condition, fail to undergo appropriate diagnostic tests and don’t follow the recommended treatment. The aim of the study was to assess the lifestyle and adherence to therapeutic recommendations of cardiac patients. The study was conducted among 465 patients in the cardiology clinic in Gryfice, Poland from June to October 2023. A self-designed questionnaire and standardized tools were used: World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF), Adherence to Refills and Medications Scale (ARMS), A dherence in Chronic Diseases Scale (ACDS) and The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Treatment reported by the participants mainly involved pharmacotherapy (90.8%) and 35.1% of the respondents took medication strictly as prescribed. Higher medication adherence (lower ARMS scores) was significantly correlated with better quality of life in the Psychological (r =  − 0.18, p  < 0.001) and Environment (r =  − 0.13, p  = 0.007) domains, and this association remained significant after adjustment for age, sex, comorbidity burden, and socioeconomic factors. A weak positive correlation was also found between medication adherence and life satisfaction ( p  = 0.003). Cardiac patients were characterised by poor to average adherence to treatment recommendations. Medication adherence appears to be associated with the quality of life of cardiac patients.