Management of hypertension.  Effect of improving patient compliance for follow-up care.
A radomized controlled trial was conducted in a metropolitan teaching hospital to determine whether improving follow-up of emergency room patients who had hypertension led to improvements in their medical care and blood pressure control.  One hundred fourty four patients were randomly assigned into an intervention group and a control group.  In the former, a follow-up clerk assigned patients in returning for follow-up care.  Eighty-four percent of patients in this group and 63% of control patients returned to the clinic (P less than 0.1).  However, five months after the patients' emergency room visits, 51% of patients in the intervention group and 53% of control patients were normotensive.  There were more diagnostic and therapeutic measures in the intervention group, but long-term management was similar in both groups.  Improvement in follow-up may not be by itself lead to blood pressure control among hypertensive patients.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance
D000959:Antihypertensive Agents