Objective:

To identify the psychosocial predictors that influence the behavioral intention to take oral antihypertensive drugs.

Materials and methods:

A cross-sectional study, based on the theory of planned behavior. A questionnaire constructed and validated was applied to 220 individuals with systemic arterial hypertension in outpatient follow-up at a public hospital. The chi-square and Fisher's exact tests, Spearman's correlation and multiple logistic regression were used for data analysis.

Results:

The participants presented a high intention of taking antihypertensive drugs. The behavioral beliefs (ß = 0.0432; p = 0.0364), subjective norm (ß = -1.5708; p < 0.01) and perceived behavioral control (ß = 2.2809; p = 0.0028) explained the behavioral intention in 33 %.

Conclusions:

The behavioral beliefs, the subjective norm, and the perceived behavioral control are significant psychosocial predictors of taking antihypertensive drugs and must be valued, individually and jointly, in the health actions targeted at this population.

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