Published online before print September 18, 2006, doi: 10.1161/01.HYP.0000240978.77934.3a
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(Hypertension. 2006;48:816.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.
Editorial Commentaries |
Antihypertensive Prescribing
Do We Have Reason to Celebrate?
From the Division of Clinical and Administrative Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, and Department of Family Medicine, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
Correspondence to Barry L. Carter, University of Iowa, 115 South Grand Ave, Iowa City, IA 52242. E-mail barry-carter@uiowa.edu
An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract. |
The blood pressure (BP) goal for Healthy People 2000 was to achieve BP control in 50% of the population with hypertension. Unfortunately, BP was only controlled in 31% in 2000.1 When the goal was not achieved in 2000, the same goal of 50% was established in Healthy People 2010.2 There is slightly >3 years to achieve Health People 2010. Do we have reason to be concerned with achieving this rather modest goal? One way to gauge our progress is to evaluate how well medical providers are adhering to guidelines.
There are several ways to evaluate guideline adherence, including physician surveys, chart reviews, and antihypertensive prescribing trends.3 In addition, there are many ways to evaluate prescribing, including pharmacy databases. Some pharmacy databases have significant limitations, because they only provide data in aggregate and do not provide information about therapy for specific patients. An example would be the percentage of all of the prescriptions written for ß-blockers. These studies provide information on overall prescribing trends but do not assess actual regimens being used in patients.
One of the common findings from prescribing trends demonstrates the steady decline in the use of diuretics. By the mid-1990s, most studies had found that diuretic use had declined to 
10% of all antihypertensive prescriptions.3 Again, it is important to recognize that this is the percentage of antihypertensive prescriptions and not that 10% of patients were receiving diuretics. Nevertheless, diuretic use dropped significantly from 1980 to 2000.
The study by Ma et al4 in this issue of
Related Article:
Hypertension 2006 48: 846-852.