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. 2008 Dec 10;36(4):204–210. [Article in Spanish] doi: 10.1157/13078617

Conducta del médico de atención primaria ante el mal control de la presión arterial

Primary care physicians behaviour in inadequate blood pressure control

FJ Alonso Moreno a,, JA Divisón Garrote b, JL Llisterri Caro c, GC Rodríguez Roca d, S Lou Arnal e, JR Banegas f, A Raber Béjar g, R de Castellar Sansó h, VF Gil Guillén i, M Luque Otero j
PMCID: PMC7684499  PMID: 16153374

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the behaviour of primary care (PC) physicians on inadequate hypertension control.

Design

Cross-sectional and multicentric study.

Setting

PC clinics in the whole of Spain.

Patients

Patients ≥18 years old who followed pharmacological antihypertensive treatment since at least 3 months before, selected by a consecutive sampling.

Measurements

Blood pressure measured by family doctors. The therapeutic diagram used before and after the visit was registered, and in those cases in which some kind of modification was adopted, the reasons why.

Results

12 754 hypertensive patients were included. The average age was 63.3±10.9 years (57.3% women). A 65% lived in urban areas and the 35% in semi-urban o rural areas. The 63.9% (95% confidence interval, 63.1%-64.8%) showed a bad control of hypertension. The majority of the patients followed a therapeutic regimen of monotherapy (56%) being the ACE inhibitors the most prescribed drug (34.8%), followed by the calcium antagonist (21.3%), and angiotensin II antagonists (17.4%). The percentage of patients with inadequate control of the blood pressure, in which the therapeutic behaviour was modified was 18.3% (95% confidence interval, 17.5%-19.1%) (a change of drug in 47%, association in 34.7% and an increase in the dose in 18.3%). The main reasons for which the therapeutic behaviour was modified was because no drug efficacy (63.7%) and the presence of adverse events (5.5%). The price of the therapy originated 1.2% of the modifications.

Conclusions

PC physicians behaviour was conservative in uncontrolled hypertension cases. Amongst the doctors who modified their behaviour, by inadequate blood pressure control, the change of drug was the decision most adopted.

Key words: Blood pressure control, Physicians behaviour, Primary care

Footnotes

Este estudio ha sido promovido por el Grupo de Trabajo en HTA de la SEMERGEN y ha contado con una beca de ayuda a la investigación de Laboratorios Almirall-Prodesfarma. El estudio no evalúa métodos diagnósticos ni eficacia de intervenciones farmacológicas. Las agencias que apoyaron esta investigación no participaron en la interpretación de los datos ni en la decisión de enviar este artículo para su publicación. Los autores no han sido remunerados.

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