Anxiety Level, Disease Adaptation and Integrative Treatment Applications in Hypertension Patients

INTRODUCTION: This research was conducted to examine the epidemic anxiety level, adaptation to the illness, and preference for integrative treatment of hypertension patients during the Covid-19 pandemic.
METHODS: The research is descriptive and cross-sectional. In the research, Personal Information Form, Epidemic Anxiety Scale, Adaptation to Chronic Illness Scale (ACIS), Turkish Modified Morisky Scale (MMS) were used.
RESULTS: In analyses conducted with 300 hypertension patients, it was determined that 71.7% had knowledge about integrative practices, and 39.7% used thyme tea, cupping, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, olive leaf tea, and pomegranate syrup for hypertension. It was found that patients using integrative methods had higher epidemic illness anxiety levels than patients who did not use integrative methods. The patients’ knowledge and motivation levels regarding medication use habits were found to be high, and their illness compliance levels were found to be above the average value.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: During the pandemic period, patients’ anxiety levels were found to be high due to reasons such as social isolation and reduced face-to-face medical contact, and this may have increased patients’ tendency towards integrative treatment methods.