Trends Research Medication Adherence of Hypertensive Patients: Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is a serious global health problem. Medication adherence is one of the important factors in its control. However, hypertension patients' adherence to medication is still a major obstacle. Many studies have addressed medication adherence in hypertensive patients. However, the mapping of scientific contributions related to the topic is still limited. Therefore, bibliometric analysis is needed to identify them.

Purpose: This study aims to analyze publication trends and contributions of authors, sources, institutions, and countries, as well as potential future research directions in hypertension treatment adherence.

Methods: This study used bibliometric analysis with the Scopus database. Articles published between 2014 and 2023 were analyzed using the keywords "hypertension", "high blood pressure", "medication adherence", and "medication compliance", combined with boolean operators. The initial documents identified were 4,558 articles. The search focused on article titles, abstracts, keywords, restricted to publications in English, and completed metadata. A total of 3,100 articles met the inclusion and exclusion criteria for analysis.

Results: Scientific publications on hypertension medication adherence increased steadily over the period 2014-2023, with 364 publications in 2020 as the peak. By number of publications, the most prolific author was Bosworth with 28 articles, while the journal Patient Preference and Adherence led with 88 articles. The United States was the most productive country with 6,320 publications. Cluster analysis identified five main clusters, with hypertension and medication compliance as dominant topics and mobile health, health education, and adherence monitoring as emerging topics.

Conclusion: The topic of hypertension medication adherence remains important to research, with great potential in the currently under-discussed areas of mobile health and health education. Future research could focus on innovative interventions in these areas to improve patient medication adherence.