Prospective, longitudinal, multicenter study, carried out in 102 Spanish primary care centers. We included 808 uncontrolled hypertensive patients treated with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers who were at high vascular risk; 4 visits were conducted: baseline and 1, 3, and 6 months later. Compliance was measured by electronic monitors. We calculated the mean percentage compliance, the overall percentage of compliers, once-daily compliers, compliers with the prescribed time frame, and antihypertensive coverage. We considered a patient to be a complier when the percentage compliance was 80%-100%.
In all, 701 patients completed the study (mean age, 63.7 [11.1] years). The systolic and diastolic blood pressures decreased significantly (P<.0001) to 18.8 mmHg and 9.8聽mmHg, respectively. The control rate was 70%(95%confidence interval, 65.6%-74.4%) (P=.0001). The rate of control was significantly higher among compliers than noncompliers (P<.05). The mean percentage of doses taken was 87.9%(95%confidence interval, 84.8%-91%) and the mean therapeutic coverage was 82.4%(95%confidence interval, 78.7%-86.1%). Overall, 73.3%of the patients were compliers (95%confidence interval, 69%-77.6%), 52.8%(95%confidence interval, 48%-57.6%) were once-daily compliers, and 46.5%(95%confidence interval, 41.9%-51.1%) complied with the prescribed time frame. Noncompliance was associated with a higher number of drugs prescribed (P<.001).
In hypertensive patients at high vascular risk, the rate of therapeutic noncompliance was very high, mainly when they took 5 or more pills daily.