Strategies for improving compliance in hypertensive patients

The results of the present trial, aimed at elucidating and improving the treatment situation of hypertensives, show that--within the domain of the Finnish community health centres--it continues to be unsatisfactory. The prevalence of the male hypertensives (those without treatment and with a permanent diastolic pressure level of at least 100 mmHg and those under treatment) aged 35 to 49 years, was 12.8%. Only half of them were receiving treatment and of these the treatment was adequate (diastolic pressure less than 90 mmHg) in only one case out of five. Overweight turned out to be common among hypertensives, 63.2% of them had at least 10% overweight (BMI greater than or equal to 27.0 kg/m2) while 15.7% had at least 30% overweight (BMI greater than or equal to 32.0 kg/m2). There were no differences worth noting in overweight between treated and untreated cases. With respect to tobacco smoking there was a clear difference in favour of the hypertensives receiving treatment, among whom only 26.1% were regular smokers, while the corresponding figure for untreated hypertensives were 41.7%. Within short time an improved, supervising physician-based treatment system could be seen to have led to favourable results in the treatment of hypertensive community health centre patients. The proportion of those receiving adequate treatment among subjects already under treatment prior to the screening, for instance, had become threefold within a few months.