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Risk of Stroke, Death Increased for Patients Who Weren't Compliant, study finds.
Blood
pressure refers to the force of blood pushing against your artery walls. Over
time, elevated blood pressure can cause serious problems.
Antihypertensive (blood pressure-lowering) drug therapy is
a major strategy of stroke prevention among hypertensive patients.
Patients
who fail to take antihypertensive medicines as directed have a greatly
increased risk of suffering a stroke and dying from it compared to those who
take their medication correctly, a new study finds.
This
population-based study of 73,527 hypertensive patients in Finland found that
patients who did not adhere to their medication had a nearly four-fold
increased risk of dying from stroke in the second year after first being
prescribed drugs to control their blood pressure, and a three-fold increased
risk in the tenth year, compared with adherent patients.
"These
results emphasise the importance of hypertensive patients taking their
antihypertensive medications correctly in order to minimise their risk of
serious complications such as fatal and non-fatal strokes," said study first author Dr. Kimmo
Herttua, a senior fellow in the Population Research Unit at the University of
Helsinki in Finland.
"Non-adherent
patients have a greater risk even 10 years before they suffer a stroke. We have
also found that there is a dose-response relationship, and the worse someone is
at taking their antihypertensive therapy, the greater their risk," Herttua
added.
###
The
above story is based on the news release by European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
The study
has been published online July 17 in the European
Heart Journal:
Herttua
K, Tabák AG, Martikainen P, Vahtera J, Kivimäki M. Adherence to
antihypertensive therapy prior to the first presentation of stroke in
hypertensive adults: population based study. Eur Heart J, 2013; DOI:
10.1093/eurheartj/eht219
You can
download the full report HERE
###
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