@article {45, title = {Doctors{\textquoteright} Knowledge, Attitude and Objective Adherence with Hypertension Guidelines in Quetta, Pakistan: A Cross-sectional Analytical Study}, journal = {Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Community Medicine}, volume = {6}, year = {2020}, month = {January 2021}, pages = {57-63}, type = {Research Article}, chapter = {57}, abstract = {

Background: There is scarcity of published information about doctors{\textquoteright} knowledge, attitude and adherence with hypertension guidelines from Pakistan. Objectives: To evaluate doctors{\textquoteright} knowledge, attitude and objective adherence with the recommendations of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) developed by American Society of Hypertension/International Society of Hypertension. Methods: This cross-sectional questionnaire-based study included 95 doctors from various health care facilities in Quetta, Baluchistan to evaluate doctors{\textquoteright} knowledge of and attitude towards guidelines. Physicians{\textquoteright} endearment with ASH/ISH (2014) guidelines was evaluated by the prescriptions they wrote to 1900 hypertensive individuals (20 prescriptions of each enrolled doctor). Data was analysed using SPSS 20. Results: 58.9\% doctors had sufficient knowledge of guidelines. Doctors{\textquoteright} with specialization and consultants, doctors of age \>35 years and who were in clinical practice for \>5 years had significantly (p-value\<0.05) greater knowledge and more guidelines adherent practices than their counterparts. There was a significant association between doctors{\textquoteright} knowledge and practice scores. (rs=0.758, p-value \<0.001). Overall, doctors had positive attitudes towards guidelines. A total of 1385 (72.9\%) prescriptions were judged guidelines adherent. In multivariate analysis, guidelines adherence had statistically significant positive association with the presence of any comorbidity (OR=2.804, p-value\<0.001), heart failure (OR=5.101, p-value\<0.001), chronic kidney disease (OR=2.384, p-value\<0.001) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (OR=3.137, p-value=0.009) and negative association with diabetes mellitus (OR=0.265, p-value\<0.001). Conclusion: Only 58.9\% doctors were adequately aware of guidelines recommendations. A fair number of patients (72.9\%) received guidelines adherent prescriptions. Doctors{\textquoteright} poor knowledge of guidelines preferred antihypertensive agents in diabetic hypertensive patients reflected in their practices.

}, keywords = {Diabetes Mellitus, Duration of clinical practice, Guidelines adherence, Hypertension, Pakistan}, doi = {10.5530/jppcm.2020.4.17}, author = {Mirza Khan and Nafees Ahmed and Abdul Wahid and Syed Liaquat Ali Khan and Asad Khan and Zarka Akbar and Palwasha Bibi} }