Patterns of antihypertensive therapy among patients with diabetes

Hypertension is extremely prevalent in patients with diabetes. Limited data exist on whether patterns of antihypertensive use in this population are consistent with evidence-based practice guidelines.

To evaluate utilization patterns of antihypertensive agents and blood pressure (BP) control among diabetic patients with hypertension.

Retrospective cohort study.

In all, 9,975 patients with diabetes and hypertension as of March 2001 from an outpatient medical center of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Proportions of use of 6 different antihypertensive drug classes were compared for all patients receiving 1, 2, 3, or 4 or more drugs, and separately among patients with and without coronary artery disease (CAD). Blood pressure control (<130/85 mmHg) was compared for untreated patients, those on monotherapy, and patients on multi-drug regimens.

Over 60% of patients were receiving angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB), followed by diuretics (38.1%), calcium channel blockers (35.3%) and beta-blockers (28.5%) with 19.1% of patients untreated. Patients on monotherapy were mostly receiving ACEI/ARB (59.5%). The majority (70.7%) of treated patients were on multidrug regimens. In patients with CAD, beta-blocker and ACEI/ARB use was higher, and 70.5% of patients on single-drug regimens received either ACEI/ARB or beta-blockers. The proportions of patients not on medications, on monotherapy, or multidrug regimens achieving BP control were 23.4%, 27.4%, and 24.9%, respectively.

Patterns of anti-hypertensive therapy were generally consistent with evidence-based practice guidelines. Areas of improvement include increasing ACEI/ARB and diuretic use, decreasing the number of untreated patients, and increasing the proportion of patients with controlled BP in this population.