Qualitative research on the perceptions of hypertensive ischemic stroke patients with low medication adherence

Objective To explore the reasons of hypertensive patients' uncontrolled blood pressure before onset of ischemic stroke so as to provide clinical evidence for stroke prevention. Methods The phenomenological analysis method in qualitative research was applied. From February to June 2016, 15 hypertensive ischemic stroke patients with hypertensive cerebral infarction and low medication adherence admitted to the department of neurology of three tertiary hospitals in Guangdong province were selected and participated in qualitative interviews. Results By Colaizzi phenomenological analysis method, the medication misconception of patients were summarized into 4 themes: estimating physical condition by self-feeling, holding the opinion that there was few relation between "whether monitoring blood pressure", "forgetting medication", "stopping medication because of various reasons" and cerebral infarction. Conclusions There are some misunderstandings in the cognition of taking medicine before the onset of hypertensive cerebral infarction. It suggests that we should strengthen blood pressure monitoring and health education of drug compliance in hypertensive patients and hypertensive cerebral infarction patients, so as to improve the effect of primary prevention and secondary prevention of stroke. Key words: Hypertension; Cerebral infarction; Medication adherence; Qualitative research