Social support and adherence to treatment in hypertensive patients: a meta-analysis.

Background: It is important to examine factors associated with patient adherence to hypertension control strategies.

Purpose: A meta-analysis was conducted to examine whether social support was related to adherence to healthy lifestyle and treatment medication in hypertensive patients.

Methods: Journal articles were searched in medical (CINAHL, MEDLINE), psychological (PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES), and educational (ERIC) electronic databases; in reference lists of selected papers; and in the reference list of a previous review.

Results: Findings of a set of meta-analyses indicated that (a) structural social support was not significantly related to overall adherence, (b) functional social support was significantly and positively related to overall adherence, (c) these findings were further confirmed in meta-analyses conducted on specific types of adherence, and (d) most results were characterized by heterogeneity across studies that was partially explained by moderator analyses.

Conclusions: Functional social support, but not structural social support, was associated with adherence in hypertensive patients.