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Relationship between medication adherence and blood pressure in primary care: prospective study

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 20, pages 625–627 (2006)Cite this article

There is good evidence from randomised trials (RCTs) that treating high blood pressure is effective in reducing cardiovascular risk, but people with high blood pressure can find it difficult to take antihypertensive medication regularly. 1 The relationship between adherence and achieved blood pressure is far from clear.

A recent systematic review of RCTs of adherence-improving strategies in hypertension showed that only 15 of 38 studies reported blood pressure as an outcome.2 Previous studies in this field used either arbitrary categorical cut points or unreliable measures of adherence.2, 3, 4 In this study, we aimed to investigate prospectively the relationship between medication adherence and blood pressure as continuous variables in people with uncontrolled hypertension.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Based Medicine, Academic Unit of Primary Health Care, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    K Schroeder, T Fahey, A D Hay, A Montgomery & T J Peters

  2. Division of Community Health Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK

    T Fahey

Authors
  1. K Schroeder
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  2. T Fahey
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  3. A D Hay
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  4. A Montgomery
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  5. T J Peters
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Additional information

Funding: Medical Research Council (as part of an MRC Training Fellowship for KS).

Ethical approval: Ethical approval was granted by the Multi-centre Research Ethics Committee.

Conflict of interest: None. All investigators were independent of the funding body.

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Schroeder, K., Fahey, T., Hay, A. et al. Relationship between medication adherence and blood pressure in primary care: prospective study. J Hum Hypertens 20, 625–627 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1002011

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