[Race, compliance to treatment and/or consultation and control of arterial hypertension].

PURPOSE

To compare racial differences on hypertension (Hy) control and compliance to appointments and/or treatment.

METHODS

Between November/94 to January/95, 200 low social strata hypertensive outpatients were interviewed (cross-sectional clinical-epidemiologic study) and had their blood-pressure measured (double-blind) in Salvador, Brazil. Compliance to treatment criteria: > or = 50% appointments/year; compliance to treatment = Hy control-WHO and NIH criteria. Means, frequency ratios (FR) and chi 2 were used in the analysis.

RESULTS

Most of the hypertensives (88%) were women. Race: 45.5% were mulatoes (M) and 40.5% blacks (B). Compliance to appointments and treatment (A + T) was 30.5%, to treatment (T) 11%, to appointments, 37%, and noncompliance = 21.5%. Compliance was 53.6% for whites (W) and 19.7% for B (p < 0.001); 40% of hypertensives were controlled by WHO criteria and 24% by the NIH (p < 0.001). Frequency ratios for SBP, NIH criteria: W/B = 2.9, W/M = 2.6; WHO: W/B and B/M = 1.7 and for DBP, NIH criteria: W/B = 1.6, W/M = 1.9 and WHO = W/B and W/M = 1.4. Main reason for compliance = Hy control; main reason for noncompliance forgetting the appointment date and/or disease in the appointment day.

CONCLUSION

Compliance to appointment did not seem an advantage for treatment adherence and the results pointed out some characteristics of patients that need special attention to improve appointments and treatment compliance.