[Blood pressure control and adherence/attachment in hypertensive users of primary health care]

This is a population-based, descriptive, and analytic study conducted with a randomized and probabilistic sample comprising 340 hypertensive individuals representative of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) Service in Joio Pessoa, PB, Brazil. The present study corresponds to the first part of a cohort started in 2008. The instrument used was an adaptation of the Primary Care Assessment Tool revalidated in Brazil. Logistic regression was used to investigate the associations between blood pressure (BP) control, sociodemographic variables, and an indicator of adherence/ attachment. Among the 340 hypertensive participants, 32.6% were followed up at the FHS, and 89.1% exhibited satisfactory adherence/ attachment. The older adults were more likely to control BP, which suggests a more accurate self-care perception and greater adherence to treatment. The present study highlights the problem posed by the control of hypertension by means of the assessment of services. We expected the present model to be applied at other locations to generate parameters to compare different municipalities.