Table 2. Patients’ quotes about their views on quality use of medication and hypertension management.

Subthemes	Quotes
Routine-lifestyle	I take medicine every day. Never forget. (P1, P16,P17,P18) I take medicine every day. I never forget to take medicine. (P2) I take medicine everyday even though I brought my medicine during visiting to relatives’ houses. (P3) Sometimes I forgot to take medicine. About 2-3 days in a week I forgot to take medicine. (P4) I only take hypertensive medicine 2-3 days in a week (P13) Sometimes when I felt tension then I take medicine. (P5) I rarely took medicine because I have many concerns about medicine especially it would interfere with my thought and turn to be less intelligent. (P12) Yes I bought medicine for migraine and headache only. (P7) Never stop medicine because I am the only one who diagnosed with high blood pressure. (P10) I also never share antihypertensive medicine because it may cause death. (P14) I took my medicine every day before going to work as a habit. (P5) I must be remembered to take medicine every day as have been suffering from high blood pressure. (P8)
Factors affecting medication compliance	Suppose my antihypertensive medicine should be taken after meal but sometimes I took it before meals. (P1,P3,P8) I am afraid to take medicine before meal because I felt stomach empty. (P5,P7,P9) In early morning, I take all medicines at once before going to work although some of the medicines should be taken either before or after meal. (P10) I don’t care whether the medicine need to be taken before or after meal (P15) I was bored with the medicine. (P5) Feeling tired because I had been taking medication for a period of 10 years. (P8) I felt nausea when taking medicine (P16) Sometimes I feel tired and afraid of hair loss. (P6) I fear the side effects of the drug and the consequences of causing cancer, so I will eat more fruit like apples rather to take antihypertensive medicine every day. (P4) I think my high blood pressure medicines are not suitable to me. It causes me headache and dizziness. So I did not take it regularly. When I felt uncomfortable and backache, then I will take the medicine, otherwise I would not take it. But every month I still collect my hypertensive medicine from hospital. (P5)
Barriers	No problem because family members were willing to send me to hospital. (P13) I have vehicle to go to the hospital. (P14) I don’t have problem of transportation. (P15) I have problem in getting transportation because hospital is too far. (P15) I have problem of transportation. (P16)
Facilitator/ reminder	I have problem of transportation but a nurse (NGO officials) will help the patient to collect medicine from hospital, so I share my medication problem with her (P2,P4,P14) I prefer to share my medication problem with member of the NGO because they know me well. (P5, P9) I like to discuss medication problem with Ms. Jaya (NGO officer)who always take medicine for me (P3,P6, P8) I have chosen pharmacist because they are drug expert. (P8) I would happy talk my medication problem with NGO who can remind me to take medicine. (P13) I will share my medication problem with NGO officer. (P17) I keep in a plastic bag. I will write or record in a book when taking medicine to avoid from forgetting because I am stroke patient. (P9)
Financial	I have no problem because I received medicine from government hospitals. (P3)
Side effect	I have hair loss problem after taking antihypertensive medicine. (P9) I felt uncomfortable and also feel dizzy. (P14) I felt drowsy, sleepy and tired. After wake up from sleeping, I felt normal. (P16)
Storage	I keep inside refrigerator and on the refrigerator.(P3) I keep in the cabinet at home. (P6) I prefer to put inside tupperware containers (P8) Now hospital only supplies 1 month medicine, so not much medicine need to be kept in house. (P12)
Solutions	I will sit and relax. Then I will eat Panadol® (Paracetamol). (P12) I will take Paracetamol when high blood pressure cause me headache (P2,P5) I will go to pharmacy buy Panadol® if high blood pressure cause me headache (P7) I will take my high blood pressure medicine together with Panadol®when headache (due to high blood pressure) (P14,P17) I will take Tramadol® medicine. (P3) I would feel very emotional and angry when my blood pressure is high. Then I will take high blood pressure medicine and then sleeping. (P9) I will sit at a side and rest (P4) I prefer have a rest when feel headache (due to high blood pressure) (P8)
Herbal/ alternative medicine	I used to eat a traditional medicine in the form of seeds to control blood pressure. (P9) I like to take herbal medicine to control my high BP (P2,P15) I used to take the herbal medicine / traditional medicine in the form of small tablet to control my high blood pressure (P13) I prefer to visit Chinese Sinseh to get some herbal medicine to control my high blood pressure. (P8) I always take my herbal supplement to control my high blood pressure (P10) I trust to herbal medicine and that’s why I always keep it at my house and take it to control for my high blood pressure. (P14) I will drink Chinese tea to “wash” my blood. (P1) I have never taken herbs, herbal remedies or traditional medicine to control blood pressure. (P5) I don’t take herbal medicine to control my high pressure (P3, P11,P12) I am not familiar with herbal medicine. (P17)
Checking of blood pressure	I check my blood pressure (level) at every month. (P4) I check blood pressure level at every 3 to 4 month which is during my appointment with doctor. (P6)
Signs and symptoms	I felt dizziness and sleepy. (P6) I would have a feeling of dizziness and tightness at the neck after eating beef which may increase my blood pressure. (P9) I was notified by doctor when my blood pressure increased. (P7) When I forgot to take medicine, I would feel the symptoms like dizzy and neck stiffness. Then I would take high blood pressure medication. (P2) I feel dizziness and headache (P3,P4) Definitely is dizziness (P5) Dizziness and headache! (P8) I think is dizziness. (P10) Obviously is dizziness (P11,P12) I felt sweating and headache (P13) I felt hot and sweating then start heachache (P14) Sweating….headache and blur vision (P16)
Learning	I got the knowledge from education talk and health briefing. (P8)` My NGO officer always share with me the knowledge of hypertension. (P15, P16) I always receive hypertension counselling from hospital pharmacists. (P13) I always join to the education talk nearby my house (P1) I like to attend educational talk (P3, P5) The health talk gave me a lot information (P6) I learn hypertension management from the health education talk (P2) Definitely education talk taught me a lot (P7) I received a lot of information (hypertension management) from TV (television) and radio. (P12) TV and Radio gave me a lot health information (P8, P17) I used to read health information from Facebook (P10)
Medication recognition	I do not know the name of the drug, but usually takes a sample of the drug. (P7) I have forgotten and do not know the name of the medicine. (P8) I do not know. I just take medicine by looking at the shape and physical characteristics of the medicine. (P12) I don’t know the name of medicine but is round and white color. (P1) The name is too long, I don’t know and even remember. (P3) For me, the name of medicine is too hard to remember but my medicine is round shape. (P9) I don’t remember the name. (P11) I only remember the share and logo on my medicine (P13) My hypertensive medicine is pentagon shape. (P14) My medicine shape like Panadol shape and white color. (P16) I don’t even know the name of medicine. (P17)
Hypertension causes	High blood pressure is cholesterol in the blood. (P3) High blood pressure caused by stress and fatigue. (P6) High blood pressure is a result of too much thinking. (P10) I think is by genetic (P1) I don’t know the actual cause (P2,P4, P5) Not enough sleep (P7) Taken too much oily food (P8, P11) Heart is not strong enough (P9) Pressure too high in blood vessels (P12) Lack of exercise (P14) I am not sure what cause hypertension (P15,P16) I heard people said is eat too much fat food (P17)
Normal blood pressure level	Normal blood pressure level is 190/80 mmHg. (P9) Normal level is 100 – 120/90 – 100 mmHg. (P11) I do not know. (P6, P8,P10,P14) 150/90 mmHg (P1, P2,P3) Emm… I think is 100/80 mmHg (P5) I am not sure. (P7) I think is 120/80 mmHg (P4) Don’t know (P12) Sorry I don’t know (P17)
Medication function	I do not know how my high blood pressure medicine works. (P6) I don’t know the medicine function (P1,P2,P4,P6) I don’t even know it (P3, P7) I do not know about it (mechanism of action). I only follow doctor’s instruction to consume medicine. (P11) I didn’t of it before (P8) Emm..I have no idea (P10,P12) I don’t know about it (P13) I just take medicine only (P14) I can’t understand the mechanism even though a pharmacist explained to me before (P15) I don’t know about how my medicine works on my body (P16) I don’t have idea (P17)
Hypertension complication	It will cause kidney damage. (P3) The complication of hypertension is paralyzed and would cause stroke. (P7)
Beneficial of medication	I do not know the advantages of high blood pressure medication and I took medicine because I was instructed by doctors. (P9) I don’t know the benefits but I just take it only (P1) The medicine can reduce heart disease (P3) It can prevent stroke (P11) It can reduce kidney damage (P14) In order to save the patients’ lives. (P14)
Medication’s expiry date	I will check the expiry date. If I found the medicines were old then I would send it to hospital. (P6) I would not take the medicine if the color of medicines were changed. (P8) I will check expiry date. I will throw away it if expired. (P15) I will check expiry date first (P1,P3) Expiry date is important to be checked (P2,P7) I will check expiry date when receiving medicine from pharmacy (P10) I always check expiry date first. If expired, then I will return back to the hospital (P11) I will not take expired medicine (P13) I will check expiry date (P15,P16) I will remind myself to check expiry date of medicine (P17)
Medication side effect	I fear the high blood medication will damage my kidneys. (P4) Kidney disease because my husband had suffered kidney disease. (P5) The concern of taking too much of medicine as it may cause me easy to forget matter. (P13) I am still taking medications continuously with no concerns although many people claim that the medicine from hospital will cause kidney failure. (P2) It will cause kidney disease but I still continue to take it (P3) Kidney damage. My husband has this problem now. (P9) Our kidney will not function well (P12) It will cause kidney disease (P14) Will cause paralysed (P16)
Treatment	I will continue the existing medicine. (P6) I do not want to take traditional medicines. They want to continue with antihypertensive medicines given by government hospitals. (P8)
Health status	I would rate my health condition as 100% based on my good control of blood pressure. (P1) I rated my health condition as 20% because I do not have a persistent good blood pressure control. (P9)