Abstract
One of the leading causes of poor adherence to antihypertensive medications is forgetfulness. A better understanding of the impact of forgetfulness can help in developing targeted interventions to improve blood pressure (BP) control. This study aimed to (1) examine the prevalence of forgetfulness to take antihypertensive medications and its associated factors in older adults with type 2 diabetes and hypertension, and (2) investigate the relationship between forgetfulness to take antihypertensive medications and poor BP control in this population. This observational study was conducted at the outpatient clinics of two hospitals in Vietnam from June 2023 to June 2024. Forgetfulness was assessed using the question: "Do you sometimes forget to take your prescribed antihypertensive medications?". Poor BP control was defined as a mean systolic BP ≥140 mm Hg or a mean diastolic BP ≥90 mm Hg. There were 448 participants. They had a mean age of 73.5 years (SD 7.2), 32.1% were female. The prevalence of forgetfulness to take antihypertensives was 29.5%, highest among participants in the first 5 years of hypertension (43.8%), followed by those with >15 years (28.0%), 11-15 years (25.2%), and 6-10 years (23.9%) (p = 0.009). Logistic regression analysis revealed that hypertension duration and disability in activities of daily living were significantly associated with forgetfulness. Forgetfulness increased the odds of poor BP control, with an adjusted OR of 1.64 (95% CI 1.03-2.56). These findings suggest the need for future studies focusing on interventions on forgetfulness to improve medication adherence for this population.