COMPLIANCE TO TREATMENT

One major challenge of hypertension managment is to achieve a compliance rate as high as possible in order to guarantee a successful long-term antihypertensive therapy. Clinical studies have shown that the drop-out rate may represent an indirect parameter for patient compliance. As having a negative influence on long-term compliance drug related side effects are best known but newer results indicate that there are also other factors like age, sex, psychological features and quality of life do have important influence on compliance. For achieving the therapeutic aim strategies like simple prescription, few concommitant medication and cautious dose-titration have shown to be efficient. Additional blood pressure self-measurement and profound instruction are essential to optimize hypertension managment in terms of compliance to treatment.