The Association between Trust in Health Care Providers and Medication Adherence among Black Women with Hypertension

Abstract

Background: Black women have the highest prevalence of hypertension in the world. Reasons for this disparity are poorly understood. The historical legacy of medical maltreatment of Blacks in the U.S. provides some insight into distrust in the medical profession, refusal of treatment, and poor adherence to treatment regimens.Methods: Black women (N = 80) who were prescribed antihypertensive medications were recruited from urban communities in North Carolina. Study participants completed the Trust in Physician and Hill-Bone Compliance to High Blood Pressure Therapy questionnaires. An exact discrete-event model was used to examine the relationship between trust and medication adherence.Results: Mean age of study participants was 48 ± 9.2 years. The majority of participants (67%) were actively employed and 30% had incomes at or below the federal poverty level. Increasing levels of trust in the health care provider was independently associated with greater medication adherence (PTrend = 0.015).Conclusion: Black women with hypertension who trusted their health care providers were more likely to be adherent with their prescribed antihypertensive medications than those who did not trust their health care providers. Findings suggest that trusting relationships between Black women and health care providers are important to decreasing disparate rates of hypertension.

Trust in Physician Scale: Factor structure, reliability, validity and correlates of trust in a sample of Nigerian psychiatric outpatients

“…We observed no correlation between trust and the duration of relationship with the psychiatrist among our patients despite the reports of positive correlations between the length of time in the patient-physician relationship and trust scores (Kao et al, 1998;Doescher et al, 2000). The positive correlation between trust and medication adherence in our data has been confirmed in previous studies (Elder et al, 2012;Abel and Efird, 2013;Schoenthaler et al, 2013).…”

Physician trust and depression influence adherence to factor replacement: a single‐centre cross‐sectional study

“…This observation further emphasizes the importance of building a strong relationship with HTC patients. The positive impact of physician trust and shared decision-making on adherence to treatment has also been demonstrated in other chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension [22,23]. As was the case with a history of depression, physician trust was significantly associated with adherence in patients using on-demand therapy but not in those using prophylaxis despite a similar distribution of physician trust in the two groups.…”

Perceived Quality of Care of Community Health Worker and Facility-Based Health Worker Management of Pneumonia in Children Under 5 Years in Western Kenya: A Cross-Sectional Multidimensional Study

“…39 In addition, more trust in providers is associated with better adherence to medication for chronic conditions such as hypertension. 40 Therefore, CHWs may play an important role in ensuring that caregivers follow recommendations for medical treatment of their children. This is consistent with a recent study in Ethiopia that found adherence rates of 84% for trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole prescriptions dispensed by CHWs.…”