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


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Lessa
I
I
Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador.
Fonseca
J
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance
Raça, aderência ao tratamento e/ou consultas e controle da hipertensão arterial.