Background: Medication nonadherence, being one of the best predictors of hospitalization, increases the mortality rate and hospital readmission and reduces the quality of life of heart failure (HF) patients. Therefore, this study is aimed at assessing medication nonadherence and associated factors among HF patients at the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 245 adult patients with HF from June to August 2017. The data were collected by using the medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5) and then entered and analyzed using SPSS® (IBM Corporation) version 24. Summary statistics were presented using frequency, proportion, and mean. Binary logistic regression analysis was done for identifying factors associated with medication nonadherence with a 95% confidence level and p value of less than 0.05.

Results: Among 245 patients with HF, about a quarter (23.7%) of them were medication nonadherent. More than one-third (37%) of HF patients had a history of at least one HF medication discontinuation. Refilling problems (48%) and getting better from the illness (27%) were the most commonly reported reasons for nonadherence. Presence of comorbidity (AOR = 2.761; 95%CI = 1.364, 5.589), taking three or more types of medication (AOR = 2.805; 95%CI = 1.404, 5.60), and being unmarried (AOR = 2.638, 95%CI = 1.279, 5.443) was significantly associated with medication nonadherence.

Conclusion: The self-reported medication nonadherence among HF patients was considerably high. Refilling problems and getting better from the illness were the most commonly reported reasons for nonadherence. The presence of comorbid illness, taking three or more types of medication, and being unmarried was significantly associated factors of medication nonadherence. Awareness creation among patients on the importance of medication adherence and _targeted efforts to assess and mitigate reasons for medication nonadherence may be helpful.