Table 1.
Patient characteristics
| Total | Standard care group | Intervention group | p Value* | |
| No. of PHCTs | 18 | 13 | 5 | |
| No. of patients | 31 581 | 21 704 | 9877 | |
| Demographic/clinical variables | ||||
| Age, years (mean (SD)) | 68.6 (11.6) | 69.1 (11.5) | 67.6 (11.6) | <0.001 |
| Sex, female | 18 825 (59.6) | 12 914 (59.5) | 5911 (58.8) | 0.562 |
| No. of BP drugs (mean (SD); median (IQR)) | 1.4 (0.8); 1 (1–2) | 1.4 (0.9); 1 (1–2) | 1.5 (0.9); 1 (1–2) | 0.028† |
| Patients with antihypertensive drugs, n (%) | ||||
| 0 | 3315 (10.5) | 2319 (10.7) | 996 (10.1) | 0.031 |
| 1 | 15 209 (48.1) | 10 501 (48.4) | 4708 (47.7) | |
| 2 | 9068 (28.7) | 6212 (28.6) | 2856 (28.9) | |
| 3 or more | 3989 (12.6) | 2672 (12.3) | 1317 (13.3) | |
| Comorbidity‡ | 9490 (30.0) | 6584 (30.3) | 2906 (29.4) | 0.101 |
| Diabetes mellitus | 8309 (26.3) | 5720 (26.3) | 2589 (26.2) | 0.79 |
| Renal failure | 1022 (3.2) | 721 (3.3) | 301 (3.1) | 0.201 |
| Heart failure | 862 (2.7) | 648 (2.9) | 214 (2.2) | <0.001 |
| CV event§ | 3839 (12.2) | 2928 (13.5) | 911 (9.2) | <0.001 |
| Outcome characteristics¶ | ||||
| BP control | 14 195 (44.9) | 9854 (45.4) | 4341 (43.9) | 0.016 |
| SBP, mm Hg (mean (SD)) | 138.3 (13.6) | 138.1 (13.6) | 138.7 (13.7) | <0.001 |
| DBP, mm Hg (mean (SD)) | 79.5 (8.5) | 79.4 (8.3) | 79.5 (8.9) | 0.231 |
Note. The diseases considered in the CV risk calculation tables in the ICS clinical practice guideline used in this study, as well as other international guidelines,14 16 are heart failure, kidney failure and diabetes mellitus. Hypertension was defined as SBP ≥140 mm Hg and DBP ≥90 mm Hg of clinical BP measurements. In patients with diabetes, heart failure or renal failure (code ICD-10: E10–E11–N17–N18–N19–I50), hypertension was defined as SBP ≥130 mm Hg and DBP ≥85 mm Hg. BP control was defined as SBP <140 mm Hg and DBP <90 mm Hg. In patients with diabetes, heart or renal failure, control values were defined as SBP <130 mm Hg and DBP <85 mm Hg.
p Values were calculated from a Student t test, the χ2 test or medians' test as appropriate, by comparing the different intervention groups.
p Value for median comparison.
Comorbidity: presence of diabetes mellitus type I or II, heart failure or renal failure.
CV: patient's clinical history of ICD-10 codes of acute myocardial infarction, angina or stroke.
BP was calculated from the mean of 3.5 (SD: 2.2) (median (IQR: 3 (2–5))) BP readings obtained during 1 year.
BP, blood pressure; CV, cardiovascular; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; SBP, systolic blood pressure; PHCTs, primary healthcare teams.