Blood pressure control and antihypertensive pharmacotherapy patterns in a hypertensive population of Eastern Central Region of Portugal

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21192829BACKGROUND: Interventions to improve blood pressure control in hypertension have had limited success in clinical practice despite evidence of cardiovascular disease prevention in randomised controlled trials. The objectives of this study were to evaluate blood pressure control and antihypertensive pharmacotherapy patterns in a population of Eastern Central Region of Portugal, attending a hospital outpatient clinic (ambulatory setting) for routine follow-up. METHODS: Medical data of all patients that attended at least two medical appointments of hypertension / dyslipidemia in a university hospital over a one and a half year period (from January 2008 to June 2009) were retrospectively analysed. Demographic variables, clinical data and blood pressure values of hypertensive patients included in the study, as well as prescribing metrics were examined on a descriptive basis and expressed as the mean +/- SD, frequency and percentages. Student's test and Mann-Whitney rank sum test were used to compare continuous variables and chi-square test and Fisher exact probability test were used to test for differences between categorical variables. RESULTS: In all, 37% of hypertensive patients (n=76) had their blood pressure controlled according to international guidelines. About 45.5% of patients with a target blood pressure <140/90 mmHg (n=156) were controlled, whereas in patients with diabetes or chronic kidney disease (n=49) the corresponding figure was only 10.2% (P