Table 1.

Patient characteristics at baseline

	Intervention group (n=45)	Control group (n=44)	P value (Student t-test or χ² test)
Age (years)	59.4±3.9	61.7±4.0	0.407*
Body mass index (kg/m2)	27.2±1.4	28.3±1.7	0.323*
No of men (n)	30 (66.7%)	25 (56.8%)	0.339†
Social level (n)
1	14 (31.1%)	19 (43.2%)	0.419†
2	11 (24.4%)	7 (15.9%)
3	20 (44.4%)	18 (40.9%)
Kidney failure (n)	6 (13.3%)	8 (18.2%)	0.530†
Liver failure (n)	0 (0%)	1 (2.3%)	NA
No of total chronic diseases (n)
1	11 (24.4%)	8 (18.2%)	0.613†
2	14 (31.1%)	12 (27.3%)
>2	20 (44.4%)	24 (54.5%)
No of diseases involved in the study (n)
1	37 (82.2%)	36 (81.8%)	0.960†
Hypertension	24 (53.3%)	22 (50.0%)	0.613†
Type 2 diabetes	5 (11.1%)	7 (15.9%)
Hypercholesterolaemia	8 (17.8%)	7 (15.9%)
2	7 (15.6%)	8 (18.2%)	0.777†
Hypertension + type 2 diabetes	6 (13.3%)	6 (13.6%)	1†
Hypertension + hypercholesterolaemia	1 (2.2%)	0 (0.0%)	NA
Type 2 diabetes + hypercholesterolaemia	0 (0.0%)	2 (4.5%)	NA
3	1 (2.2%)	0 (0.0%)	NA
No of different drugs prescribed	5.0±0.8	6.2±1.2	0.118*
Adjusted no of different drugs prescribed (n)
<5	18 (40.0%)	18 (40.9%)	0.930†
≥5	27 (60.0%)	26 (59.1%)
Side effects (n)	9 (20%)	11 (25.0%)	0.572†
Adherence score	2.0±0.4	2.2±0.4	0.501*
Patients with hypertension (n)	32 (71.1%)	28 (63.6%)	0.452†
Used as primary outcome (n)	27 (60.0%)	28 (63.6%)	0.724†
Patients with type 2 diabetes (n)	12 (26.7%)	15 (34.1%)	0.446†
Used as primary outcome (n)	9 (20.0%)	7 (15.9%)	0.615†
Patients with hypercholesterolaemia (n)	10 (22.2%)	9 (20.5%)	0.839†
Used as primary outcome (n)	9 (20%)	9 (20.5%)	0.957†
Lost to follow-up (n)	11 (24.4%)	5 (11.4%)	0.108†

Data are expressed as proportion of patients and number of patients for dichotomous variables, and as mean±95% CI for continuous variables.

*Student t-test.

†χ² test.