Compliance and the therapeutic effect in patients with arterial hypertension.

Objective And Method: To analyse the therapeutic effect of treatment in patients monitored in our hypertension outpatient department and evaluation using questionnaires. To determine the influence of treatment effectiveness on the level of co-operation received from the patient. The effect of treatment was monitored by retrospective analysis of the medical records of 101 patients with essential hypertension.

Results: 1) Pharmacological treatment of essential hypertension led to the normalisation of blood pressure levels in 28 patients. The drop in pressure from 146/90 mmHg to 129/82 mmHg was statistically significant (p = 0.001). 2) Only 7 % of patients were fully compliant. A drop (6) in blood pressure was more marked in compliant patients (deltaBPs = 11 mmHg, deltaBPd=9 mmHg), compared with the group of non-compliant patients (deltaBPs = 3 mmHg, deltaBPd = -4 mmHg). 3) Patients have a low level of compliance in relation to non-medicamentous treatment. They are not willing to cut down their salt intake (37%), to stop smoking (12 %) and to reduce their weight (11%).

Conclusion: The conducted study confirms the insufficient treatment of arterial hypertension, a better effect of treatment in the patients with 1st stage of arterial hypertension compared with the patients with a more serious stages, a fairly high percentage of non-compliant patients and a positive connection between patient's compliance and the reduction in blood pressure values. We would like to emphasise that long-term compensation of blood pressure is a key factor in preventing complications. The efficiency of treatment depends on regular blood pressure controls and intensive motivation of the patient to respect the therapeutic discipline. (Tab. 9, Fig. 1, Ref. 17.)