Pharmacy Daily | Hypertension compliance hopeless

A STUDY released by the National Heart Foundation has found that almost 50% of patients being treated for hypertension are not taking medications as prescribed by their doctors. The organisation polled more than 9000 patients, with 43.5% revealing that they weren’t taking their antihypertensives. Medication compliance for women was worse than for men, with 47% of females told by their doctor they have high blood pressure saying they don’t take medication for the condition. Heart Foundation ceo Dr Lyn Roberts said that one in every 11 Australians - or a total of 1.95 million people - are estimated to have high blood pressure. 20% of the people surveyed acknowledged that their doctor had advised them they were at high risk of having a heart attack - and even among this group a quarter did not take their blood pressure medicine. The Heart Foundation’s hypertension Adherence Toolkit can be downloaded by clicking here.

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