Browsing by Author "Medagedara, A.U."

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Compliance with antihypertensive medications and its associations and knowledge on Hypertension-Hospital based study in Sri Lanka
(Sri Lanka College of Internal Medicine, 2019) Medagedara, A.U.; Thampoe, R.S.; Batagoda, B.M.S.M.; Mendis, W.A.S.; Martin, V.T.; Mettananda, K.C.D.
BACKGROUND: Hypertension is the commonest preventable risk factor for the development of cardio and cerebrovascular disorders. Poor compliance with anti-hypertensive medications is an important yet often an under recognized risk factor for uncontrolled hypertension and rarely has this aspect been investigated thus far in Sri Lanka. OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence and associations of compliance with antihypertensive medications and the knowledge on hypertension among patients attending to medical clinics conducted by the Department of Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine, Ragama. METHODS: An interviewer-administered questionnaire and the patients' clinic records were utilized to collect data. Prevalence was assessed using SPSS 22 version. Associated factors were analyzed by binary logistic regression. RESULTS: Prevalence of medium and low compliance are 42.3% and 35.1% respectively. Factors significantly associated with poor compliance were not starting treatment at all due to the feeling that it's better not to start a treatment that they'll have to continue for the whole lifetime (p value 0.04), frequency at which medications have to be taken being too difficult to be followed (p value 0.00), finding it difficult to comprehend the instructions provided by the pharmacist (p value 0.00) and lack of knowledge on hypertension (p value 0.00). CONCLUSION: Compliance with antihypertensive medications can be enhanced by rectifying patients' misconceptions on hypertension.
Pharmacoeconomics amidst a financial crisis
(Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists, 2023) Williams, S.S.; Medagedara, A.U.; de Silva, H.A.
Cost effective strategies must be implemented amidst an economic crisis in Sri Lanka to mitigate ever increasing medicinal costs. Exploration of measures such as evidence based generic prescribing, cost effectiveness analysis, value-based pricing, identification of low cost, high value medication and being sensitive to the ability of the patient to purchase medicine is a necessity. Clinicians must be sensitised to this issue to contribute actively to the process. Policies in line with pharmacoeconomic realities must be pursued.