Factors Influencing Treatment Outcome of Patients with Diabetes and Hypertension at the Ejisu Government Hospital in Ejisu, Ashanti Region, Ghana.

Introduction: Diabetes and Hypertension prevalence accounts for more than two-thirds of all medical admissions in Ghana. This necessitates the exploratory factors that affect the treatment outcomes of these conditions. The aim of this study is to determine factors that influence treatment outcomes of patients with Diabetes and Hypertension at the Ejisu Government Hospital.

Method: A facility based descriptive cross-sectional study design was carried out on 423 patients, aged  ≥18 years  who visited the diabetic clinic at Ejisu Government Hospital once in a month and were diagnosed of Diabetes and Hypertension a year or more ago, using a structured questionnaire. Stata 14.0 was used to analyze collected data with results presented in tables. Poisson logistic regression was used to determine the association between the demographic variables indicated in this study to determine their influence on treatment outcomes.

Results and Discussion: There were 71% of patients with their glucose score in the normal range (4.4-8.8mmol/l) on the day of interview whiles 6.13% of patients were severely hypertensive (≥160/≥100mmHg) on the day of interview. According to Morisky’s adherence scale, 68.0% of patients had low adherence; 67.4% of patients reported getting their medications all the time whereas 90.8% of patients agreed that their medication could be managed. Patients with family history of diabetes had nearly fifty-seven percent [OR = 0.57; 95% CI = 0.32-1.00; p=0.05] chance of experiencing positive treatment outcomes. In addition, patients with family history of hypertension, were fifty-five percent less likely [OR = 0.55; 95% CI = 0.31-0.98; p=0.04] to report positive treatment outcome.  All other socio-demographic factors [age≥70 {0.73; 95% CI= 0.13-1.38; p=0.15}, gender {OR=0.52; 95% CI= 0.15-1.81; p=0.30}, marital status {OR=1.45; 95% CI=0.86-2.45; p=0.16} and employment status {OR=0.34; 95% CI=0.12-0.98; p=0.44}] did not influence treatment outcomes for diabetes and similarly for Hypertension.

Conclusion: Family history of patients with Diabetes and Hypertension influence treatment outcomes negatively.