Date of Award

5-2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

Psychology

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Peter Vietze

Committee Member

Paul Amrhein

Committee Member

Ken Sumner

Abstract

Hypertension is a serious chronic condition that afflicts many Americans. The present study used the Common Sense Model (CSM) of Self Regulation as a theoretical framework to aid in the examination of predictors of medication and/or lifestyle adherence. Based upon the literature reviewed, the current study proposes that predictors would be different for medication and lifestyle adherence. Three hypotheses were proposed: 1. CSM-related variables (blood pressure monitoring, condition-worry hypertension duration, control beliefs, and medication beliefs items) would be correlated with medication adherence; 2. specific CSM-related variables, self assessed health (SAH) and physical functioning would significantly be correlated with lifestyle adherence; 3. If there are common predictors of medication and lifestyle adherence, the predictors would account for more of one type of adherence than the other. The current study utilized data from a larger study evaluating patients’ management of acute and chronic conditions. Results supported the three hypotheses. There was no correlation between medication and lifestyle adherence. The overall model was significant in a stepwise regression with all CSM-related predictors, including age, race and education predicting medication adherence. The stepwise regression model was significant with all CSM-related predictors, including, age, race and education predicting lifestyle adherence. Different predictors in medication (the side effect of this treatment are manageable for me”) and lifestyle adherence (“the prescribed treatment for my hypertension keeps it under good control” were found supporting hypothesized independence of the two constructs.

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