Research
published in Hypertension by Gupta et
al looked at the reasons of non-adherence to anti-hypertensive treatment.
The
researchers used liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry of urine and
serum to detect non-adherence and explored its association with the main
demographic- and therapy-related factors in 1348 patients with hypertension in
the United Kingdom and Czech republic.
The researchers
found that non-adherence to the blood pressure medications was inversely
related to age and male sex and was as high as 41.6% in the UK and 31.5% in the
Czech Republic. Furthermore, with each additional prescription, the rate of
non-adherence increased to 85% and 77% in the UK and Czech populations. The odds of non-adherence to diuretics were the highest among
5 classes of antihypertensive medications in both populations.
High blood pressure
is the single most important risk factor for health loss and premature death
worldwide. Although treatment is proven
to be effective, target blood pressures are only achieved in 40-50% of
patients. This is likely due to a high number of patients taking their
medicines incorrectly, or at all.
