Blood Pressure Treatment Adherence and Control Through 24-hour Ambulatory Monitoring

Background: Although systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) is an important cardiovascular risk factor, blood pressure level control often remains inadequate. Assessment of adherence to antihypertensive treatment through 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) may represent an important aid in the search for BP control targets.

Objective: To assess adherence to antihypertensive treatment and its association with BP values at 24-hour ABPM in hypertensive patients treated in primary health care (PHC) centers.

Methods: We carried out a cross-sectional study of 143 hypertensive patients, who constituted a representative sample of patients from PHC centers in the town of Antonio Prado, RS. The Morisky-Green test was used to evaluate adherence and verify the number of medications used by patients, followed by 24-hour ABPM.

Results: We observed that 65.7% of the sample was considered adherent to the proposed treatment, 20.3% were moderately adherent and only 14% were classified as non-adherent. Considering all the 143 patients evaluated, 79 (55.2%) were identified as having controlled hypertension (<130/80 mmHg) according to the 24-hour ABPM measurements, 64 (44.8%) were considered uncontrolled (>130/80 mmHg), 103 (72%) had absence of nocturnal BP dip and 60 (41.9%) were uncontrolled while awake.

Conclusions: In this study, we observed a lack of adequate hypertension control with a consequent loss of opportunity for PHC professionals to adequately adjust the recommended BP control targets. This fact occurs in spite of proper adherence to antihypertensive treatment by patients in PHC centers.