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Why some treated patients with arterial hypertension do not report of having it: Findings from epidemiological studies
, 1, 1, 1
Affiliations- Department of Preventive Medicine and Education, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
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Abstract
Background: Diagnosis of hypertension (HT) in epidemiological studies sometimes requires careful clinical evaluation. This may be particularly challenging in the subgroup of patients taking antihypertensive drugs for indications other than HT.
Material and methods: The PolSenior2 study was conducted on a representative sample of Polish residents aged 60 or older. Blood pressure measurements were taken three times during two separate visits in a total of 5,981 people (2,920 men and 3,044 women). The diagnosis of HT was made according to the European Society of Cardiology and European Society of Hypertension (ESC/ESH) criteria. On this basis, 4607 people were classified as having HT. Among them, 424 respondents were taking antihypertensive drugs, but were not aware of having the disease. Additional analysis was performed, consisting of a detailed telephone questionnaire and additional clinical assessment of potential comorbidities. The researchers managed to contact 269 people, of whom 265 agreed to participate in the study.
Results: Based on the answers obtained, the respondents were divided into four subgroups: A. 54 (20.4%) respondents confirmed they had been diagnosed with HT and admitted that they considered the fact of taking medications as the absence of the disease; B. 79 (29.8%) respondents were not aware of HT, but the available clinical data indicated taking antihypertensive drugs due to HT; C. 79 (29.8%) of the respondents declared having HT, which may indicate that during the study they gave the wrong answer or their answer was incorrectly recorded by the research team member; D. 53 (20.0%) respondents answered “I don’t know/I don’t remember”. There were no differences in the distribution of responses between those with elevated and normal blood pressure, or between the age groups of 60–79 and over 80.
Conclusions:
- A small percentage of patients with HT (approx. 1.5%) may confuse good control of the disease with being cured of it. This indicates the need for better patient education.
- On the other hand, some patients take antihypertensive drugs for reasons other than HT. Therefore, accurate determination of the diagnosis of HT in epidemiological studies requires obtaining complete medical documentation with detailed data on the reasons for prescribing drugs and comorbidities.
Abstract
Background: Diagnosis of hypertension (HT) in epidemiological studies sometimes requires careful clinical evaluation. This may be particularly challenging in the subgroup of patients taking antihypertensive drugs for indications other than HT.
Material and methods: The PolSenior2 study was conducted on a representative sample of Polish residents aged 60 or older. Blood pressure measurements were taken three times during two separate visits in a total of 5,981 people (2,920 men and 3,044 women). The diagnosis of HT was made according to the European Society of Cardiology and European Society of Hypertension (ESC/ESH) criteria. On this basis, 4607 people were classified as having HT. Among them, 424 respondents were taking antihypertensive drugs, but were not aware of having the disease. Additional analysis was performed, consisting of a detailed telephone questionnaire and additional clinical assessment of potential comorbidities. The researchers managed to contact 269 people, of whom 265 agreed to participate in the study.
Results: Based on the answers obtained, the respondents were divided into four subgroups: A. 54 (20.4%) respondents confirmed they had been diagnosed with HT and admitted that they considered the fact of taking medications as the absence of the disease; B. 79 (29.8%) respondents were not aware of HT, but the available clinical data indicated taking antihypertensive drugs due to HT; C. 79 (29.8%) of the respondents declared having HT, which may indicate that during the study they gave the wrong answer or their answer was incorrectly recorded by the research team member; D. 53 (20.0%) respondents answered “I don’t know/I don’t remember”. There were no differences in the distribution of responses between those with elevated and normal blood pressure, or between the age groups of 60–79 and over 80.
Conclusions:
- A small percentage of patients with HT (approx. 1.5%) may confuse good control of the disease with being cured of it. This indicates the need for better patient education.
- On the other hand, some patients take antihypertensive drugs for reasons other than HT. Therefore, accurate determination of the diagnosis of HT in epidemiological studies requires obtaining complete medical documentation with detailed data on the reasons for prescribing drugs and comorbidities.
Keywords
arterial hypertension; unawareness; epidemiological survey; diagnosis
About this articleTitle
Why some treated patients with arterial hypertension do not report of having it: Findings from epidemiological studies
Journal
Issue
Article type
Original paper
Pages
152-156
Published online
2023-06-27
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355
Article views/downloads
263
DOI
Bibliographic record
Arterial Hypertension 2023;27(3):152-156.
Keywords
arterial hypertension
unawareness
epidemiological survey
diagnosis
Authors
Piotr S. Szczęsny
Kacper Jagiełło
Krzysztof Flis
Tomasz Zdrojewski
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