ANTIHYPERTENSIVE DRUG THERAPY BETWEEN ELDERLY PATIENTS IN A RURAL AREA OF PORTUGAL

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the antihypertensive therapy among > 65 years old in a rural area of Portugal. Design and method: The study includes 400 patients 65–93 years old. Average age was 76.2 ± 6.8 years old (76.4% women). The 40.3% of individual have complete basic education and 4% still continued to work. Study was conducted in several internal medicine external offices of a Hospital in a rural area of Portugal from October 2017 to May 2019. The presence of High Blood Pressure (HBP), cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and antihypertensive therapy was evaluated in 2 groups of patients: 65–79 years old (n = 336) and > 80 years old (n = 64). Results: Antihypertensive therapy was reported by 93% (n = 372) patients. The 45,46% of the patients (n = 171) received monotherapy. Combination of two-drugs were taken by 31.98% (n = 119) of the patients. Three and four drugs combination were taken by 16,12 % (n = 60) and 5,91% (n = 22) of the patients, respectively. The study revealed ACE inhibitors and like thiazides diuretics as most frequent drugs (52.8% and 49.6% of patients, respectively). The distribution of another groups of antihypertensive pills is following: calcium channel blocker - 39.6%, angiotensin receptor blocker - 24.7%, beta blocker - 14% patients and central action blockers 6,5 %. In patients taking 2 anti-hypertensive drugs, the most frequent association was ACE inhibitors and like thiazides diuretics (42,3 %) followed by ACE inhibitor plus calcium channel blocker (28,5 %). In patients taking 3 drugs, the most frequent association was ACE inhibitor plus like thiazide diuretic plus calcium channel blocker. Conclusions: Most hypertensive patients > 65 years old receive combination antihypertensive therapy. Combinations of ACE inhibitors + like thiazides diuretics or ACE inhibitors + calcium channel blocker are among the most common.