Treatment of chronic heart failure in adults at a referral hospital in Kenya: adverse drug reactions and determinants of adherence
View/ Open
Date
2016Author
Kimani, Lawrence M
Karimi, Peter N
Opanga, Sylvia A
Bosire, Kefa O
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Background: Chronic Heart Failure is a major health problem with a prevalence of between 1 and 12% in USA and
Europe, and approximately 5.7% in Sub-Saharan Africa, and has socio-economic relevance owing to its high
prevalence, mortality and impact on young economically active individuals. In 1999 chronic heart failure constituted
3.3% of all medical admissions at Kenyatta National Hospital.
Objective: The purpose of the current study was to determine factors that affect adherence to treatment among
patients with Chronic Heart Failure at Kenyatta National Hospital and assess any association between any such factors
Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study involving patients >18 years diagnosed with Chronic
Heart Failure at Kenyatta National Hospital. Eighty three eligible and consenting study participants were recruited
into the study using a convenient sampling technique. Data were collected by means of an interviewer administered
questionnaire adapted from the Revised HF Adherence Questionnaire.
Results: Data from 83 patients was analyzed majority (n=51, 61.4%) of whom were women. The age of the patients
ranged from 18 to 80 years with the majority (n= 37, 44.6%), between 21-40 years. Majority (n=58, 68.9%) of the
patients considered appointment keeping, compliance to medication (n= 64, 77.1%), dietary restriction (n=59, 72%),
regular exercise (n=49 59.0%), smoking cessation (n=59, 71%), and alcohol cessation (n=58, 69.9%) as very
important. Fifty three (63.9%) respondents had not failed to take their medicines at any time. Majority (n=72, 86.8%)
of the study participants were aware of the disease condition they were suffering from while valvular heart disease
was the commonest comorbidity (n= 17 27.9%). The study revealed an association between sex and some adverse
drug reactions using Pearson χ² test through bivariate analysis. Sleep disturbances and nausea occurred more in
males than females while headache and drowsiness were more prevalent in females and in both cases the
relationships were statistically significant (p< 0.05)
Conclusions: Adherence to medicines among patients with Chronic Heart Failure is reasonably high at Kenyatta
National Hospital despite patients’ knowledge level about the condition being generally low. Valvular heart disease
was the most common comorbidity while hyponatremia was the most prevalent electrolyte disturbance, and
tachycardia, vomiting and rash the most common adverse drug effects.
Citation
African Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics Vol. 5 No. 1 Pages 35-41, 2016Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10387]
The following license files are associated with this item: