Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of non-adherence to antihypertensive drug treatment and its association with factors bio-socio-economic and welfare.
Method: It was a descriptive, cross-sectional study, performed with 422 hypertensive individuals. Data were collected through home interviews, conducted between December 2011 and March 2012.
Results: The results showed that the respondents were mostly female, married, elderly, low income and little time of diagnosis. Were considered non adherent to medication 42.65% of participants. Non-Caucasian hypertensive patients, with fewer than eight years of schooling, who did not regularly attend doctor's appointments, took more than two anti-hypertensive medications and did not have private health insurance, showed higher likelihood of not complying with the drug treatment.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that hypertensive patients with unfavorable socioeconomic characteristics and difficulty of access to the service require different interventions in order to encourage them to adhere to medication treatment.