Therapeutic inertia in the management of hypertension in primary care.

Background: Therapeutic inertia is considered to be an obstacle to effective blood pressure (BP) control.

Aims: To identify patient characteristics associated with therapeutic inertia in patients with hypertension managed in primary care and to assess reasons not to intensify therapy.

Methods: A Dutch cohort study was conducted using electronic health record data of patients registered in the Julius General Practitioners' Network (n = 530 564).