Validation of the Hill-Bone's scale of compliance to high blood pressure therapy in his Tunisian version

Background Hypertension is the first cause of mortality worldwide. Poor adherence to antihypertensive regimens results in poor clinical outcomes, and major the health care costs. Several medication-adherence scales were designed to measure the extent to which patients adhere to their medication and treatment regimen. This study is performed to test the reliability and validity of the Hill-Bone's Scale of compliance to high blood pressure therapy in Tunisian hypertensive patients. Methods The original scale was translated in local Tunisian dialect in his14 items and tested in 191 consecutives hypertensive patients followed in both cardiology consultations (Monastir and Gabes) over a period of 4 months (1st April–31 July 2016). The control of Blood pressure (BP) was taken by 6 ambulatory measures in the tow following weeks after inclusion. Cronbach's alpha was used for analysing the internal consistency of the scale. Results The average age of our patients was 64.4 years. The sex ratio was 0.67. In total, 34% of patients were illiterate. In total, 53.9% had no profession. The angiotensin converting enzyme is the most prescribed drug class (62.3%). A controlled BP was found in 50.3% of patients. The internal consistency of the Hill-Bone test measured by the value of Cronbach's alpha was 0.55 for the total score of 0.3 for the sodium intake subscale, −0.11 for the appointments keeping subscale and 0.72 for the medication appointment subscale (score 8 items). The modified Hill-Bone's Scale (8 items)  P  = 0.02). Conclusion Our study has validated the internal consistency of the part of psychometric score of Hill-Bone regarding medication on Tunisians sick.