Clinical & Experimental Cardiology
Open Access
ISSN: 2155-9880
ISSN: 2155-9880
Nouf A AlSadoun, Nora Y Al Deghaither Nervana M Bayoumy, Norah A Musallam and Shehanah F AlOmair
King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Clin Exp Cardiolog
Purpose: To assess compliance with and awareness about oral anticoagulant therapy (OAT) among Saudi patients, and their willingness to use the point-of-care (POC) INR testing devices for self- monitoring. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the anticoagulation clinic at King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia over the period of six months. A face-to-face interview questionnaire was carried out for all patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria and analysed according to: demographics, adherence, knowledge, and INR control. Compliance and knowledge were assessed based on Morisky 8-item medication adherence scale and the oral anticoagulation knowledge test (OAK) respectively. Comparison between knowledge, adherence and INR range with demographics was conducted. Results: Most of the respondents were on warfarin (89.5%). Generally, patients had poor knowledge and medium adherence (53.1%) with OAT predominantly among the elderly. (24%) of the Poor Knowledge group (PKG) were high adherent participants compared to (14.5%) of the Fine Knowledge Group (FKG). However, (53.2%) of FKG had a controlled INR where this percentage falls into (27%) in the PKG, with a significant difference between the two regarding their INR range (p=0.001). Majority of patients (74.7%) were eager to make use of the POC-INR devices. Conclusion: Patients had poor knowledge about OAT, but most of them were highly adherent compared to the FKG. However, significant difference was noted in INR control where the FKG had controlled INR more than the PKG. Our results show that the level of knowledge didn��?t affect the degree of compliance, but educational programs would definitely help patients in having less complication, less visits to the clinics and improve their routine in general. The majority of Patients were accepting to the idea of using the POC-INR devices, which will help them in keeping the INR within the therapeutic range, and potentially reducing adverse clinical outcomes.
Email: nouf.alsadoun@gmail.com