Table 3.

General characteristics between three levels of adherence to the management programme among hypertensive people

Characteristics	Drop out§ (n = 61)	Irregular follow-up§ (n = 84)	Regular follow-up§ (n = 314)
Age (year) (mean ± SD)	62.6 ± 15.4	63.3 ± 15.5	66.7 ± 12.5*
Male (%)	49.2	50.0	45.5
Education
Primary school or lower (%)	33.3	48.2	46.5
Secondary school or higher (%)	66.7	51.8	53.5
Marriage status
Married (%)	84.4	75.0	73.3
Other (%)	15.6	25.0	26.7
Occupation
Manual workers (%)	46.7	50.0	24.4 **
Other (%)	53.3	50.0	75.6 **
Distance to health station (km)	1.1 ± 0.5	1.0 ± 0.5	1.0 ± 0.5
Having insurance (%)	33.3	41.1	47.0
Initial blood pressure categories
Pre-hypertensive stages+(%)	0.0	0.0	0.7
Hypertension stage I (%)	62.3	60.7	28.0 **
Hypertension stage II (%)	26.2	22.6	38.2 **
Hypertension stage III (%)	11.5	16.7	33.1 **
Number of behavioural CVD risk factors	0.8 ± 0.8	0.8 ± 0.8	0.6 ± 0.7
History of cardiovascular diseases (%)	18.0 **	27.4 **	43.6 **
History of other chronic diseases (%)	6.6	7.1	10.2
Family history of CVD (%)	8.2	17.9	16.2
Changes in blood pressure
Systolic BP reduction (mmHg)	17.6 ± 15.6 **	29.2 ± 16.0 **	55.5 ± 21.7 **
Diastolic BP reduction (mmHg)	7.9 ± 7.3 **	15.9 ± 8.8 **	28.7 ± 11.9 **
Hypertension stage changes	1.1 ± 1.1 **	1.7 ± 1.1 **	3.2 ± 1. 2**
Number of drugs to combine	0.9 ± 0.9 **	1.5 ± 1.0 **	2.5 ± 0.7 **
Number of tablets to take daily	0.9 ± 1.1**	1.4 ± 1.2 **	2.6 ± 1.4 **
Drug side effects or minor diseases (%)	0.0	1.2	1.3
Major adverse cardiac events (%)	3.3	4.8	1.3

^§ Adherence to management program: regular: one check-up per 1-2 months; irregular: one check-up per 3-6 months; drop-out: less than one check-up per 6 months.

⁺ Hypertensive people but well treated; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01