Table 1.

Patient characteristics and medication adherence profiles.

	Na	%	% Complianceb
All	147,914	100.0	102,377 (69.2%)
Gender
Male	66,725	45.1	47,359 (71.0%)
Female	81,189	54.9	55,018 (67.8%)
Age
< 50	36,227	24.5	22,344 (61.7%)
50–59	29,529	20.0	21,318 (72.2%)
60–69	30,988	21.0	22,504 (72.6%)
≥ 70	51,169	34.6	36,210 (70.8%)
Public assistance			p < 0.001
Yes	23,541	15.9	16,036 (68.1%)
No	123,119	83.2	85,447 (69.4%)
Service type on first visit			p < 0.001
In-/day-patient clinic	39,733	26.9	23,133 (58.2%)
Special out-patient clinic	49,895	33.7	35,691 (71.5%)
Accident and Emergency Department	6954	4.7	2305 (33.1%)
General outpatient clinics	47,124	31.9	37,999 (80.6%)
Others	4201	2.8	3245 (77.2%)
District of residence			p < 0.001
Hong Kong	25,621	17.3	18,434 (71.9%)
Kowloon	49,214	33.3	33,249 (67.6%)
New Territories	73,079	49.4	50,694 (69.4%)
First prescription			p < 0.001
ACEIs	17,263	11.7%	14,427 (83.6%)
Alpha blocker	8044	5.4%	5084 (63.2%)
Beta blocker	62,969	42.4%	41,149 (65.6%)
CCB	44,299	29.9%	29,810 (67.3%)
Thiazide	11,449	7.7%	8223 (71.8%)
Combined fixed dose	66	0.0%	52 (78.8%)
ARB	390	0.3%	303 (79.7%)
Combined	3717	2.5%	3329 (89.6%)
Co-morbidity
No	82,249	55.6	54,826 (66.7%)
1	52,768	35.7	28,267 (72.5%)
2	11,668	7.9	8394 (71.9%)
≥ 3	1229	0.8	890 (72.4%)
SBP (mm Hg)	Mean = 135.8 (SD = 13.2)
DBP (mm Hg)	Mean = 74.5 (SD = 8.5)

^aFrom a total of 223,287 patients excluding those visited only once or stayed ≤ 30 days in the cohort, a total of 147,914 eligible patients were included.

^bAdherence is defined as a 5-year Proportion of Days Covered ≥ 80% (total prescription days / total days in cohort).