Medication adherence in hypertension: are digital interventions a possible solution? Seminar

There is substantial evidence that hypertension is a major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease events and therefore the treatment of this condition is a key focus of primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease in both economically developed and developing countries. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that hypertension affects one billion people worldwide and is therefore a major global health challenge.

The pharmacological treatment of hypertension has led to substantial benefits in the prevention of morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease. However, despite their established efficacy, there is a significant problem of non-adherence to these treatments in those diagnosed with hypertension; therefore the effectiveness of current medications is sub-optimal.

Digital interventions have emerged relatively recently as a potential tool for enhancing medication adherence. My PhD research focuses on this. I will present the first three studies of my PhD – a content analysis of apps for medication adherence (Morrissey, Corbett, Walsh & Molloy, 2016), a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness and content of interventions to enhance medication adherence and blood pressure control in hypertension (Morrissey et al., 2017) and a qualitative study on general practitioners views on digital interventions to enhance medication adherence in hypertension.