Abstract
The low levels of compliance with drug therapy is a serious obstacle to the successful control of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. This article addresses a study that was based on the identification of illiteracy as a major cause of non-compliance with a drug treatment among diabetic and hypertensive patients participating in the Hiperdia program at a health unit in the city of Colombo, state of Paraná, Brazil. The goal was to assess the impact of pictorial prescriptions on compliance with treatment. A group of 63 diabetic and hypertensive patients participating in Hiperdia was analyzed. They answered a structured interview, the content of which was subsequently analyzed before and after the implementation of a pictographic prescription. As a result, compliance with the drug treatment among the illiterate rose from 60 percent to 93.33 percent. There was no change in compliance in the literate group. It was concluded, however, that this type of intervention is limited to the improvement of the patients' health condition, because the increase in compliance occurs both with regard to the drug treatment and precariousness.
Keywords
Compliance with drug treatment; Hiperdia; illiteracy; social determinants of health; precariousness