Table 1.

Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of the study group

Variable		Poor communication (n = 34)	Good communication (n = 216)	p
Age	mean ± SD	65.68 ± 10.69	60.53 ± 14.73	0.049 NP
Duration of HT in years	mean ± SD	10.24 ± 10.77	12.4 ± 10.34	0.124 NP
Appointment duration [min]	mean ± SD	16.21 ± 9.52	20.08 ± 10.13	0.008 NP
Time spent discussing the patient’s problems [min]	mean ± SD	7.38 ± 7.22	10.43 ± 9.39	0.037 NP
Sex	Female	18 (52.94%)	122 (56.48%)	0.841
	Male	16 (47.06%)	94 (43.52%)	chi2
Place of residence	Rural	6 (17.65%)	51 (23.61%)	0.582
	Urban	28 (82.35%)	165 (76.39%)	chi2
Relationship status	Single	9 (26.47%)	65 (30.09%)	0.82
	In a relationship	25 (73.53%)	151 (69.91%)	chi2
Education	Primary or none	3 (8.82%)	20 (9.26%)	0.762
	High school	20 (58.82%)	112 (51.85%)	F
	College/university	11 (32.35%)	84 (38.89%)
Professional status	Professionally active	9 (26.47%)	77 (35.65%)	0.338
	Retirement pensioner	20 (58.82%)	96 (44.44%)	F
	Disability pensioner	3 (8.82%)	34 (15.74%)
	Unemployed	2 (5.88%)	9 (4.17%)
Financial standing	Wealthy	0 (0.00%)	12 (5.56%)	0.723
	Able to afford all that is needed and save some money	14 (41.18%)	83 (38.43%)	F
	Able to afford daily expenses, but not any larger ones	17 (50.00%)	93 (43.06%)
	Unable to afford many things	3 (8.82%)	25 (11.57%)
	Unable to afford even the most basic expenses	0 (0.00%)	3 (1.39%)
Frequency of follow-up appointments	1	3 (8.82%)	12 (5.56%)	0.557
	1–2	4 (11.76%)	39 (18.06%)	F
	4–5	9 (26.47%)	38 (17.59%)
	More than 5	18 (52.94%)	124 (57.41%)
	None	0 (0.00%)	3 (1.39%)
BMI:	Normal weight	7 (20.59%)	65 (30.09%)	0.514
	Overweight	15 (44.12%)	81 (37.50%)	chi2
	Obesity	12 (35.29%)	70 (32.41%)
BP	Normal BP	22 (64.71%)	120 (55.56%)	0.415
	Elevated BP	12 (35.29%)	96 (44.44%)	chi2

P normal (parametric) distribution in groups, Student’s t-test; NP non-parametric distribution in groups, Mann-Whitney test, BP blood pressure, HT hypertension, BMI Body Mass Index