[Knowledge of hypertension among hypertensive patients in general practice, and its relation to achieving therapeutic goals: The Co-HACT study, French West Indies].

Objectives: Appraisal of the agreement between patients' reports and general practitionners' declaration in a French Caribbean population and relationship with blood pressure normalization.

Methods: One hundred French Caribbean practitioners participated in this observational survey: each of them included five essential hypertensives treated for more than three months. BP was considered to be normalized if inferior to 140/90 mmHg. We considered that there is a total agreement between patient and GP declaration when SBP and DBP did not differ by more than 5 mmHg and when the eight risk factors or co-morbidity were identical. Identification of independent factors of BP normalization and awareness was performed using logistic regression.

Results: Five hundred and nine hypertensives (57% women) were recruited. Sixty-nine percent (n = 328) were less than 65 years, 75% (n = 341) had an educational level less than high school. The normalisation rate was 39% (n = 185) within the whole population. 63.4% had a high cardiovascular risk. BP normalization appeared to be closely associated to BP awareness.

Conclusions: In this observational survey, in a French Caribbean hypertensive population, two third had a high cardiovascular risk. The normalization rate was 39%. This BP normalization appeared to be closely associated to BP awareness.