BMJ, doi: 10.1136/bmj.39371.489398.80, (Published 8 November 2007)

Editorials

Improving adherence to drugs for hypertension

General practitioners who provide explanations of treatment using appropriate communication strategies achieve better results

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Effective drug treatments are available for many chronic conditions. But management of chronic diseases can be successful only if health professionals prescribe appropriately and if drugs are taken appropriately to maximise their pharmacological effects. A systematic review of interventions to improve adherence stated that, "ways to help people follow medical treatments could have far larger effects on health than any treatment itself."¹ Interventions to improve adherence in people with hypertension have targeted patients and health professionals, but studies in the past have often lacked methodological rigour.

Adherence to long term treatment for chronic illnesses in developed countries is about 50%, and rates are probably even lower in developing countries.² In their study on bmj.com, Qureshi and colleagues report the results of a cluster randomised controlled trial of a simple educational package delivered to 78 general practitioners in Karachi, Pakistan.³ The intervention consisted of a one day "intensive training session" that . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Stokes Medical Centre, Bristol BS34 6BQ, ² Department of Family Medicine and General Practice, Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, Dublin 2, Ireland

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Effect of general practitioner education on adherence to antihypertensive drugs: cluster randomised controlled trial

Nudrat Noor Qureshi, Juanita Hatcher, Nish Chaturvedi, Tazeen H Jafar Hypertension Research Group
BMJ 2007 335: 1030. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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