25% of patients being treated with antihypertensives are non-adherent to treatment, shows a recent UK study.
A total of 208 hypertensive patients – 125 of which were new referrals from primary care – underwent screening of antihypertensive drug intake at a blood pressure centre in Leicester, using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry urine analysis at the time of their first appointment. Evaluation included screening for 40 of the most commonly prescribed antihypertensive medications, including ramipril and lisinopril.
Overall, 25% of patients were either totally or partially non-adherent to antihypertensive treatment (total non-adherence 10.1%, partial non-adherence 14.9%). Of those referred from primary care, 18.4% were found to have any of the two non-adherence criteria, with an average number of screened medications lower than the average number prescribed.
The researchers noted that their results highlighted that a ‘significant proportion of patients in a specialist centre show at least some degree of treatment non-adherence and that their blood pressure levels correlate well with the degree of non-adherence’.
