Improvement of medication compliance in uncontrolled hypertension

38 hypertensive Canadian steelworkers who were neither compliant with medications nor at goal diastolic blood-pressure six months after starting treatment were allocated either to a control group or to an experimental group who were taught how to measure their own blood-pressures, asked to chart their home blood-pressures and pill taking, and taught how to tailor pill taking to their daily habits and rituals; these men were also seen fortnightly by a highschool graduate with no formal health professional training who reinforced the experimental manoeuvres and rewarded improvements in compliance and blood-pressure. Six months later, average compliance had fallen by 1.5% in the control group but rose 21.3% in the experimental group. Blood-pressures fell in 17 of 20 experimental patients (to goal in 6) and in 10 of 18 control patients (to goal in 2).