An evaluation of prescription refill compliance among hypertension patient at secondary hospital in Penang

Objective: This research was conducted to evaluate the prescription refill compliance among hypertensive patient at Hospital Seberang Jaya, Penang. Methods: 367 prescriptions were evaluated during this research. These prescriptions consist of patients whom diagnosed with hypertension. The purpose of evaluating prescriptions is to obtain data on the information regarding concerning compliance and demographic factor: date of claim, gender, and age, number of medication, duration and compliance level. The data obtained from the prescriptions are then analysed by using SPSS version 18.0. Results: Based from the study conducted, more than half of the subject is over 60 years old. Majorities of the subject are Malay which (48.4%), 36.8% were Chinese, 13.5 % were Indian, and 1.4% was others. Male patient also shows higher percentage which is 59.9% while female is 40.1%. About 80% of the patient are compliance, 17% of them are not compliance while the rest are over compliance. There is significance between gender and number of medication and prescription refill compliance. Conclusions: Overall the rate of prescription refill compliance among patients in Hospital Seberang Jaya can be said as satisfactory because of significance of two variables. Awareness about prescription refill compliance must be enhanced more to female patients. Moreover, continuous education must be given to the patients to make sure that their understanding about prescription refill compliance is at optimum level. Prescription refill compliance is the first step towards medication compliance and also one of the keys to an effective treatment.