OBJECTIVES:  With advent of the patient-centric healthcare paradigm, it is important to consider patients’ health experience when making treatment decisions. This study aimed to describe patients’ medication experience among patients with hypertension and to examine whether the patients’ medication experience depends on individual drugs and patient characteristics.

METHODS: Data were from a cross-sectional survey of members of six senior centers in a metropolitan statistical area of a south eastern state of the US. The seniors taking at least one hypertensive medication were included in this study (N=216). Patient medication experience was measured in terms of overall experience, effectiveness, side effects, ease of use, cost of medication, food interactions using a 5-point Likert scale. Patient characteristics were socio-demographics, MMAS (Morisky Medication Adherence Scale), BMQ, (Beliefs about medicines questionnaire), and CCI (Charlson Comorbidity Index). Drug characteristics were active ingredients. Multilevel analysis was conducted to control for the nested structure of the medication experiences reported for multiple drugs within each individuals.

RESULTS: Overall, patients were satisfied with their blood pressure medications (mean=4.28, sd=1.29). They were less satisfied with medication safety (mean=3.15, sd=1.83) than with effectiveness (mean=4.22, sd=1.28). The percent of variance in each measure of medication experience explained by the patient level factors was large ranging between 73.21% and 90.56% in ICC (Intraclass Correlation). Overall medication experience was significantly associated with medication belief (p=0.009), adherence (p=0.002), and education (p=0.007). Patients who had better medication adherence reported significantly better scores in the experience measures of effect (p=0.039), ease of use (p=0.046), and cost of medication (p=0.024). However, the significant relationship did not exist in medication safety and food interaction.

CONCLUSIONS:  Patient medication experience differed depending on drugs and patient characteristics. The varying medication experience implies that older patients with hypertension are in need of tailored medication counseling.