The purpose of this project is to study ways to make it more likely that patients will take their blood pressure medicine as recommended by their doctors.
The objective of this randomized control trial is to evaluate, among 190 African-American patients with poorly controlled hypertension followed in a community-based primary care practice, whether motivational interviewing is more effective than usual care (routine counseling) in achieving adherence to prescribed blood pressure medications at 12 months. The project aims to: 1) determine whether patients who receive motivational interview counseling have greater reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure than those in the control group at 12 months. Clinic blood pressure readings will be assessed at baseline and at every three months thereafter for one year and 2) assess the effect of self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation as potential mediators of motivational interview on adherence. Self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation will be assessed at baseline and every three months thereafter for one year.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
167
Trained nurses will interview the group using motivational interview counseling techniques. All sessions will be conducted with the aid of an adapted version of a standardized structured adherence counseling script. This script was specifically developed for use in medication adherence studies of HIV positive patients and has been provided for this trial.
Columbia University Medical Center
New York, New York, United States
Score on Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-4)
Adherence to antihypertensive medications will be assessed at baseline and every three months thereafter for one year using a validated 4-item scale developed by Morisky that specifically addresses medication-taking. The scale asks patients to respond "yes" or "no" to a set of 4 questions. A positive response to any question indicates a problem with adherence. Each positive answer is assigned a score of 1. The total possible score is 4 with higher score indicating poorer adherence.
Time frame: Up to one year from baseline
Blood pressure readings
Within clinic systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings will be assessed at baseline and at every three months thereafter for one year using a mercury syphgmomanometer.
Time frame: Up to one year from baseline
Score on efficacy scale
Self-efficacy will be assessed at baseline and every three months thereafter for one year using a 44-item self-efficacy scale devised based on Bandura's Scale. Patients are asked to rate their confidence in taking their blood pressure medications under a variety of situations that may pose difficulties to them using a 3-point likert response format - 1= not at all sure, 2= somewhat sure, and 3= very sure. A summary score is computed by summing the responses, with higher scores reflecting high self-efficacy.
Time frame: Up to one year from baseline
Score on the Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire (TSRQ)
Intrinsic motivation will be assessed at baseline and every three months thereafter for one year with aid of TSRQ. It is used to assess the degree to which one's motivation for a particular behavior is relatively autonomous or self-determined. Patients are provided with 15 reasons why they may not take their medications as prescribed and asked to indicate the degree to which each reason is true on a scale of 1 to 7 with 7 been very true.
Time frame: Up to one year from baseline
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