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Nurse-led adherence support in hypertension: a randomized controlled trial
Knut Schroeder1, Tom Fahey, Sandra Hollinghurst
1Primary Health Care, Department of Community Based Medicine, University of Bristol, UK. k.schroeder@bristol.ac.uk
Insights
Nurse-led support did not improve medication adherence or blood pressure control in patients with hypertension. This intervention was also more costly than usual care, offering no clear benefit for managing high blood pressure.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Medicine
- Nursing Research
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Poor medication adherence is a significant factor in uncontrolled hypertension, increasing risks of heart attack and stroke.
- Effective strategies are needed to improve adherence and blood pressure management in community settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the impact of nurse-led adherence support on medication adherence and blood pressure control.
- To compare nurse-led support against usual care for patients with uncontrolled hypertension.
Main Methods:
- A randomized controlled trial involving 245 adults with uncontrolled hypertension (>= 150/90 mmHg) from 21 UK general practices.
- Participants were assigned to either nurse-led adherence support or usual care.
- Primary outcomes included medication adherence ('timing compliance') and blood pressure levels.
Main Results:
- Baseline medication adherence was high in both groups (90.8% intervention vs. 94.5% control).
- No significant difference in medication adherence was observed at follow-up between the nurse-led support and usual care groups.
- No significant differences in systolic or diastolic blood pressure were found between the groups.
- The nurse-led intervention incurred higher projected primary care costs per consultation.
Conclusions:
- Medication adherence rates in this study exceeded previous reports.
- Nurse-led adherence support did not demonstrate a significant effect on medication adherence or blood pressure control compared to usual care.
- The intervention presented a higher cost from a primary care perspective without clear clinical benefits.
Background:
Lack of medication adherence is a common reason for poor control of blood pressure in the community, increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Objective:
To evaluate the effect of nurse-led adherence support for people with uncontrolled high blood pressure compared with usual care.
Methods:
We recruited 245 women and men with uncontrolled hypertension (> or = 150/90 mmHg) from 21 general practices in Bristol, UK. Participants were randomized to receive nurse-led adherence support or usual care alone. Main outcome measures were adherence to medication ('timing compliance') and blood pressure.
Results:
Mean baseline timing compliance (+/- SD) was high in both the intervention (90.8 +/- 15.6%) and the control group (94.5 +/- 7.6%). There was no evidence of an effect of the intervention on timing compliance at follow-up (adjusted difference in means -1.0%; 95% confidence interval (CI) -5.1 to 3.1). There was also no difference at follow-up between the groups with regard to systolic blood pressure (-2.7 mmHg; 95% CI -7.2 to 1.8) or diastolic blood pressure (0.2 mmHg; 95% CI -1.9 to 2.3). Projected costs for the primary care sector per consultation were 6.60 pound sterling for the intervention compared with 5.08 pound sterling for usual care.
Conclusion:
In this study, adherence to blood pressure medication was much higher than previously reported. There was no evidence of an effect of nurse-led adherence support on medication adherence or blood pressure compared with usual care. Nurse-led adherence support was also more expensive from a primary care perspective.
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